SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
BULLETIN 143
HANDBOOK
OF
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS
Julian H. Steward, Editor
Volume 3
THE TROPICAL FOREST TRIBES
Prepared in Cooperation With the United States Department of State as a Project
of the Interdepartmental Committee on Scientific and Cultural Cooperation
UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON : 1948
For aale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Goyernment Frintinc Office.
Washington 25, D. C.
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^CE U
1\\>.0'H'
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
Smithsonian Institution,
Bureau of American Ethnology,
Washington, D. C, June 1, 1945.
Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith a manuscript entitled
"Handbook of South American Indians. Volume 3. The Tropical Forest
Tribes," edited by Julian H. Steward, and to recommend that it be
published as a bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology.
Very respectfully yours,
M. W. Stirling, Chie].
Dr. C. G. Abbot,
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
Ill
CONTENTS
PAGE
Preface xxi
Acknowledgments xxiii
List of contributors xxv
The Tropical Forests : An introduction, by Robert H. Lowie 1
Culture 2
Bibliography 56
Part 1. The Coastal and Amazonian Tupi 57
The archeology of the Parana River, by Francisco de Aparicio 57
Introduction 57
Geographical setting 57
Ethnographic considerations and conclusions 59
History of archeological investigations 60
Archeological sites 60
Cultural remains , 62
Bibliography 66
The Guarani, by Alfred Metraux 69
Tribal divisions 69
Archeology of the Guarani area 73
The Conquest 75
Culture 80
Bibliography 94
The Tupinamba, by Alfred Metraux 95
Tribal divisions 95
Historical migrations of the Tupinamba 97
Culture 99
Bibliography 133
The Guaja, by Curt Nimuendaju 135
History 135
Culture 135
Bibliography 136
The Tenetehara, by Charles Wagley and Eduardo Galvao 137
Introduction 137
History 138
Culture 138
Bibliography 148
The archeology of the Amazon Basin, by Betty J. Meggers 149
Introduction 149
Sources 151
Archeological regions 151
Bibliography 166
The Tapirape, by Charles Wagley and Eduardo Galvao 167
Introduction 167
Culture 168
Bibliography 178
The Caraja, by William Lipkind 179
Tribal divisions and territory 1 79
Archeology 180
History 180
Culture 180
Bibliography 191
V
VI CONTENTS
PAGE
The Turiwara and Arua, by Curt Nimuendaju 193
The Turiwara 193
Language, territory, and history 193
Culture 194
Bibliography 194
The Arua 195
Territory, language, and history 195
Culture 197
Bibliography 198
The Amanaye, by Curt Nimuendaju and Alfred Metraux 199
Language, territory, and history 199
Culture 200
Bibliography 202
Little-known tribes of the lower Tocantins River region, by Curt
Nimuendaju 203
Introduction 203
The Pacaja 203
Territory and history 203
Culture 204
The Anambe 204
History and territory 204
The Tapiraua 204
The Kupe-rob 205
The Jacunda 206
The Paracana 206
History 206
Culture 207
The Mirano 208
Bibliography 208
Little-known tribes of the lower Amazon, by Curt Nimuendaju 209
The Aracaju 209
The Apoto 210
The Pauxi 210
Bibliography 211
Tribes of the lower and middle Xingu River, by Curt Nimuendaju
Geographic background 213
Cultural summary 213
Linguistic affinities 214
Prehistoric peoples 216
Historic tribes 217
The Yuruna 218
The Shipaya 219
The Arupai 220
The Curuaya 221
The Tacunyape 222
The Arara 223
The Asurini 225
Culture 225
Bibliography 243
CONTENTS VII
PAGE
The Maue and Arapium, by Curt Nimuendaju 245
The Maue 245
Introduction 245
Culture 246
The Arapium 253
Bibliography 254
The Mura and Piraha, by Curt Nimuendaju 255
The Mura 255
Tribal location and history 255
Language 257
Culture 258
The Piraha 266
Tribal location, history, and language 266
The Yahahi 267
Culture 267
Bibliography 269
The Mundurucu, by Donald Horton 271
Territory and name 271
History 272
Culture '2-T^
Bibliography 282
The Cawahib, Parintintin, and their neighbors, by Curt Nimuendaju. .. 283
The old Cawahib 283
The Parintintin 284
Territory, language, and history 284
Culture 285
Indians of the Anari River region 294
Territory and history 294
Culture 295
The "Parintintin" between the upper Tapajoz and Sao Manoel
Rivers 295
Indians of the Sangue River region 296
Indians of tlie Bararaty River region 296
The "Parintintin" between the Jamaxim and Crepory River? 296
Bibliography 297
The Tupi-Cawahib, by Claude Levi-Strauss 299
Tribal divisions and history 299
Culture 300
Bibliography 305
The Cayabi, Tapanyuna, and Apiaca, by Curt Nimuendaju 307
The Cayabi 307
Introduction 307
Culture 308
The Tapanyuna 310
The Apiaca 312
Introduction 312
Culture 313
Bibliography (See The Cawahib, Parintintin, and their neighbors.) .
Tribes of the upper Xingu River, by Claud-Levi-Strauss 321
Tribal divisions and history 321
Culture 324
Bibliography 348
VIII CONTENTS
PAGE
Part 2. The tribes of Mato Grosso and eastern Bolivia 349
The Paressi, by Alfred Metraux 349
Tribal divisions 349
History 350
Sources 350
Culture 351
Bibliography 360
The Nambicuara, by Claude Levi-Strauss 361
Tribal divisions and history 361
Culture 362
Bibliography 369
Tribes of the right bank of the Guapore River, by Claude Levi-Strauss. 371
Introduction 371
Tribal divisions 371
Culture 372
Bibliography 379
Tribes of eastern Bolivia and the Madeira Headwaters, by Alfred
Metraux 381
The Chiquitoans and other tribes of the Province of Chiquitos 381
Tribal divisions and languages 381
The Chiquitoan linguistic family 383
History of the Province of Chiquitos 383
The culture of the Chiquito proper 384
The Manasi 388
Language and habitat 388
Culture 388
The modern Churapa 393
History 393
Culture 393
The sixteenth-century ethnography of the Chiquitos region. . . . 394
Bibliography 395
The Otukean tribes 395
Bibliography 395
Tribes of unidentified language, presumably Otukean 395
The Arawakan tribes of Chiquitos 396
Tribal divisions and history 396
Culture 396
The Chapacuran tribes 397
Tribal divisions and history 397
Culture 397
Bibliography 406
Little-known tribes of the upper Madeira River 406
Bibliography 407
The Mojo and Baure 408
Tribal divisions 408
History 409
Sources 410
Archeology of the Mojo region 410
Culture 412
Bibliography 424
CONTENTS IX
PACK
The Canichana, Movima, Cayuvava, and Itonama 425
The Canichana 425
Territory and history 425
Culture 425
Bibhography 426
The Movima 426
Territory and history 426
Culture 426
Bibliography 426
The Cayuvava 427
Territory and history 427
Culture 427
Bibliography 427
The Itonama 428
Territory and history 428
Culture 428
Bibliography 430
The Guarayu and Pauserna 430
Tribal divisions 430
History 430
Culture 431
Bibliography 438
The Tacanan tribes 438
Tribal divisions 438
History 441
Culture 442
Bibliography 449
The Southeastern Panoan tribes 449
Tribal divisions 449
Culture 450
Bibliography 452
The Southwestern Panoan tribes 453
Tribal divisions 453
Culture 453
Bibliography 454
The Sirion6, by Allan Holmberg 455
Introduction 455
History 455
Culture 456
Bibliography 463
Tribes of the eastern slopes of the Bolivian Andes, by Alfred Metraux. 465
Introduction 465
Chiriguano and Chane 465
History 465
Archeology 468
Sources 469
Culture 470
Bibliography 485
The Yuracare, Mosetene, and Chimane 485
Tribal divisions 485
Archeology 486
653333—47—2
X
CONTENTS
PAGE
Post-Conquest history 486
Culture 487
Bibliography 504
The Leco 505
History 505
Culture 505
The Apolista or Lapacho 506
Bibliography 506
Part. 3. Tribes of the Montana and Bolivian east Andes 507
Tribes of the Montana : An introduction, by Julian H, Steward 507
Introduction 507
History and sources 509
Montana culture and culture changes 515
Bibliography 533
Tribes of the Peruvian and Ecuadorian Montaiia, by Julian H. Steward
and Alfred Metraux 535
Arawakan tribes 535
Introduction 535
Tribal divisions and history 535
Sources 541
Culture 542
Bibliography 551
Mayoruna 551
History 551
Culture 552
Bibliography 555
The Panoan tribes of Eastern Peru 555
Introduction 555
Tribal divisions and history 557
Sources 567
Culture 567
Bibliography 595
The seventeenth-century tribes of the upper Huallaga River 595
Tribal divisions 595
History 597
Ethnographic summary 597
Bibliography 597
Tribes of the middle Huallaga River 598
Tribal divisions and history 598
Sources 601
Culture 601
Bibliography 605
The Cahuapanan tribes 605
Tribal divisions and history 605
Sources 608
Culture 608
Bibliography 614
Tribes of the upper Maran6n River 614
Tribal divisions 614
History 616
Ethnographic summary 616
CONTENTS XI
PAGE
The Jivaro 617
Introduction 617
Tribal divisions and history 618
Sources 619
Culture 619
Bibliography 627
The Zaparoan tribes 628
Introduction 628
Tribal divisions and history 629
Culture 639
Bibliography 651
The Cofan 651
Bibliography 651
Unidentified tribes of the upper Putumayo-Napo River region.... 651
The Quijo 652
Introduction 652
History 653
Sources 653
Culture 653
Bibliography 656
Part 4. Tribes of the western Amazon Basin 657
Tribes of the Jurua-Purus Basins, by Alfred Metraux 657
Introduction 657
Sources 658
Tribal divisions 659
Panoan tribes 659
Arawakan tribes 660
Catukinan tribes 663
The Tupian family 664
Culture 664
Bibliography 686
Tribes of the middle and upper Amazon River, by Alfred Metraux 687
Tupian tribes of the upper Amazon River 687
Tribal divisions and history 687
Sources 691
Culture 691
Tribes of the middle Amazon 704
Ethnographic data in Carvajal's account of the Orellana Expedi-
tion (1542) 706
Arawakan tribes of the left, middle Amazon 707
Tribal divisions and history 707
Culture 709
Bibliography 712
The Tucuna, by Curt Nimuendajii 713
Habitat, history, and language 713
Culture 714
Bibliography 725
The Peban tribes, by Julian H. Steward and Alfred Metraux 728
Introduction 727
Tribal divisions and history 727
Sources 729
Xn CONTENTS
PAGE
Culture 730
Bibliography 736
Western Tucanoan tribes, by Julian H. Steward IZl
Tribal divisions and history 737
Culture 741
Tribes of uncertain affiliation in the upper Putumaj-o region 747
Bibliography 748
The Witotoan tribes, by Julian H. Steward 749
Introduction 749
Tribal divisions and history 749
Sources 751
Culture 751
Bibliography 762
Tribes of the Uaupes-Caqueta region, by Irving Goldman 763
Introduction 763
Tribal divisions 764
Tribal history 767
Culture 769
Bibliography 798
Part 5. Tribes of the Guianas and the left Amazon tributaries 799
Tribes of the Guianas, by John Gillin 799
Introduction 799
Tribal divisions 801
The Arawakan family 801
The Auakean family 804
The Cariban family 804
The Calianan family 813
The Macuan family 813
The Muran family 813
The Salivan or Macuan family 813
The Shirianan family 814
The Tupian family 814
The Warrauan family 815
Linguistic family unidentified 815
History 817
Sources 818
Archeology 819
Culture 825
Bibliography 858
The hunting and gathering tribes of the Rio Negro Basin, by Alfred
Metraux 861
The Shiriana, Waica, and Guaharibo 861
Tribal divisions 861
Culture 862
The Macu 864
The Macu of the Rio Negro and Caiari-Uaupes River 867
The Macu of the Urariocoera Basin 867
The Macu-Piaroa 867
Bibliography 867
The Warrau, by Paul Kirchhoff 869
Location, history, and sources 869
CONTENTS XIII
PAGE
Language 870
Culture 870
Bibliography 881
Part 6. Culture areas of the Tropical Forests, by Julian H. Steward
Introduction 883
The basic Tropical Forest cultures 886
The Guianas 886
Northwest Amazon 888
The Montana 890
The Mura 891
The Jurua and Purus River tribes 891
The Mojos-Chiquitos area 892
Tupian tribes 894
The Marginal cultures 896
Guiana Internal Marginals 896
Northwestern Marginals 896
The Western Submarginals 896
Marginal tribes of the southern Amazon periphery 897
Glossary 901
Bibliography 903
ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATES
PAGE
1. Brazilian and Paraguayan landscapes from the air 38
2. The Peruvian Montana 38
3. Ecuadorean and Brazilian jungles 38
4. Landscapes of Venezuela and the Guianas 38
5. Venezuela rivers 38
6. Tropical Forest hunters and fishers 38
7. With blowgun and gun in the Tropical Forest 38
8. Tropical Forest agriculture and food preparation 38
9. Plastic representations from the Parana River country 58
10. Parana River area sherds 58
11. Fingernail-marked Guarani ware 90
12. Guarani and other pottery from Paraguay 90
13. Tenetehara boys 138
14. Tenetehara women and shaman 138
15. Amazonian pottery from Counany 154
16. Amazonian burial urns from Marajo 154
17. Amazonian pottery from Marajo 154
18. Amazonian pottery from Marajo and Santarem 154
19. Tapirape ceremonies and house construction 170
20. Caraja house and physical types 186
21. Caraja types 186
22. Caraja paddles, gourds, and basketry 186
23. Mundurucu artifacts 282
24. Tupi-Cawahib village life 306
25. Tupi-Cawahib village life 306
26. Tupi-Cawahib mothers and children 306
27. Yaulapiti Indians in "woodskins," or bark canoes 346
28. Yaulapiti women preparing manioc in pottery vessels 346
29. Upper Xingu house frames 346
30. Naravute and Yaulapiti Indians 346
31. Upper Xingu Indians 346
32. Aueto carrying bark canoe 346
33. Upper Xingu Indians 346
34. Fish-net dance of the Nahukwa 346
35. Paressi life 354
36. Nambicuara types 370
37. Nambicuara and upper Guapore Indians 370
38. Indians of the Pimenta Bueno River 378
39. Huge trumpets of the Mojos region 410
40. Tiboita and Mojo Indians 410
41. Chiriguano pottery and urn burials 506
42. Chiriguano Indians 506
43. Chiriguano artifacts 506
44. Wooden masks of the Chiriguano and the altiplano 506
45. Yuracare Indians of the early 19th century 506
46. Modern Yuracare Indians 506
XV
XVI ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
47. Chimane and Yuracare manufactures 506
48. Panoan Indians of the 19th century 634
49. Conibo Indians 634
50. Cashibo and Campa garment types 634
51. Montana ear, nose, and lip ornaments 634
52. Montana pottery types 634
53. Masco Indians 634
54. Archers of the Montana 634
55. Masco rack of pottery and temporary windshelters 634
56. Acculturated Canelo Indians 634
57. Canelo Indians 634
58. Canelo Indians of the 19th century 634
59. Zaparo Indians of the 19th century 634
60. Jivaro Indians 634
61. Scenes of Jivaro life 634
62. Jivaro Indians 634
63. Human heads shrunken by the Jivaro 634
64. Tucuna objects of bark cloth 714
65. Tucuna Indians of the 19th century 714
66. Yagua and Peba Indians 730
67. Yagua Indians 730
68. Yagua village scenes 730
69. Yagua house construction 730
70. Yagua cutting and carrying logs for a raft '30
71. A Yagua raft 730
72. Yagua traps '30
IZ. Yagua Indians preparing blowgun and darts '^^
74. Yagua blowgun '30
75. Yagua textiles 730
76. Yagua industries '^0
n. A Yagua council meeting '^^
78. Yagua scenes ' ^^
79. Yagua Indians ' ^^
80. Coto Indians 746
81. Bora drums and Witoto communal house 762
82. Witoto carved wooden memorial figures '"^
83. Witoto bark-cloth masks and dance costume 762
84. Witoto dance 762
85. Bora types 762
86. Witoto men and women in festive decorations 762
87. Witoto types 762
88. Witoto body painting 762
89. Cubeo fishweir and manioc preparation 794
90. Food prepartion, northwest Amazon 794
91. House types of the northwest Amazon 794
92. A Cawa house 794
93. House types of the northwest Amazon 794
94. Cubeo manufactures 794
95. Cubeo baskets 794
96. Cubeo mourning ceremony 794
97. Cubeo mourning dance regalia 794
98. Cubeo mourning ceremony 794
ILLUSTRATIONS XVII
PAGE
99. Northwest Amazon drum and ceremonial objects 794
100. Northwest Amazon manufactures 794
101. Northwest Amazon manufactures 794
102. Northwest Amazon manufactures 794
103. Indians of the northwest Amazon 794
104. Indians of the northwest Amazon 794
105. Guiana house frames 826
106. Guiana houses and villages 826
107. Guiana houses 826
108. Guiana house construction 826
109. Fishing in the Guianas 826
110. Panare blowgun 826
111. Growing and preparing manioc in the Guianas 826
112. Guiana industries 826
113. Guiana Indians in the late 19th century 826
114. Rucuyen Indians fishing and hunting 826
115. Guiana women weaving and spinning 826
116. Guiana weaving and woodwork 826
117. Guiana household and camp scenes 826
118. Guiana artifacts 826
119. Guiana religion, dances, and burial 826
120. Guiana cremation, curing, and ceremonialism 826
121. Guiana costumes and transportation 826
122. Guiana women 826
123. Guiana types 826
124. Guiana types 826
125. Shiriana Indians 866
126. Macu malloca and plantation 866
FIGURES
1. Tropical Forest crafts 15
2. Tropical Forest basketwork of lattice type 23
3. Loom for manufacture of thick hammocks 25
4. Parana River vessel with zoomorphic handles 64
5. Guarani pottery from the Parana Delta 67
6. Tupinamba palisaded village and camp 104
7. Tupinamba headdress and ceremonial war club 105
8. Tupinamba dress 106
9. Tupinamba ceremonial objects 107
10. Tupinamba and Guarani pottery 110
11. Tupinamba burial and cultivation Ill
12. Tupinamba warfare and cannibalism 121
13. Tupinamba cannibalistic ceremonies 123
14. Tupinamba cannibalism 125
15. Tupinamba shamans wearing feather cloaks and carrying rattles 130
16. Maraca and Marajo pottery 158
17. Santarem pottery 164
18. Caraja house frame 182
19. Caraja wooden stool 183
20. Caraja manufactures 184
21. Caraja manufactures 185
22. Caraja burial 188
XVIII ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
23. Caraja wax and clay dolls 189
24. Caraja masks 190
25. Yuruna wcxxlen stool 228
26. Pottery from the lower Xingu 231
27. Asurini weapons 232
28. Arara trophies 237
29. Shipaya painted decorations 239
30. Lower Xingii wood carvings and manufactures 240
31. Yuruna carved wooden toys (?) 241
32. A Bacairi village 326
33. Bacairi pubic covering 329
34. Upper Xingu artifacts 330
35. Upper Xingu wooden spindle whorls 332
36. Pottery of the upper Xingu River 333
37. Upper Xingu artifacts 334
38. Bacairi house wall decorations on bark strips 341
39. Bacairi wooden dance pendants 341
40. Bacairi masked dancers 342
41. Mehinacu and Bacairi masks 343
42. Upper Xingu masks 344
43. Paressi Indians 352
44. Paressi decorated gourds 356
45. Huari ax 374
46. Guapore musical instruments 376
47. Macurap pseudo-panpipes 377
48. Huari bone flutes 378
49. Artifacts from Chiquitos, Churapa Indians 387
50. Huanyam pottery forms 403
51. Itonama woman spinning 429
52. Guarayii traps 432
53. Guarayu carrying basket 433
54. Guarayu and Chacobo fire drills 435
55. Tiatinagua woman making cornmeal 443
56. A "Cascara," or bark canoe, of the Caripuna 451
57. Chiriguano fish dam in the Pilcomayo River 471
58. Chiriguano and Chane pottery decorations 474
59. Chiriguano and Chane manufactures 475
60. Chiriguano pottery 476
61. Chane calabashes 477
62. Mosetene traps 489
63. Mosetene hut 490
64. Yuracare ornaments, whistles, and flutes 491
65. Yuracare artifacts 492
66. Yuracare stamps and combs 493
67. Chimane dugout canoe 494
68. Chimane and Yuracare artifacts 495
69. Yuracare twined stick box 496
70. Chimane woman spinning cotton 496
71. Yuracare musical instruments 501
72. Goto traps 518
73. Montana pottery types 523
74. Montana pottery types 524
ILLUSTRATIONS XIX
75. Montana pottery 52b
76. Panoan (Chama) device for head deformation 573
n. Panoan (Shipibo) mother and children 573
78. Chama and Cahuapana utensils 576
79. Panobo bowl, white and red 577
80. Montana artifacts 579
81. Panoan (Chama) walking aid for infants 584
82. Decorative design from a Shipibo man's cushma 588
83. Shipibo paddle 588
84. Shipibo body painting 589
85. Shipibo decorated weaving sword or batters 589
86. Montana pottery types 589
87. Artifacts of the Montana tribes 591
88. Cahuapanan (Munichi) low platform bed 609
89. Chebero and Aguano utensils 611
90. Chebero pottery 611
91. Jivaro platform bed 621
92. Jivaro drum 625
93. Quijo pot on stone pot rests 655
94. Yamamadi fish trap 666
95. Boats of the Jurua-Purus 667
96. Houses of the Jurua-Purus 668
97. Yamamadi shelter 669
98. Ipurina loom 672
99. Yamamadi manufactures 673
100. Ipurind bark trumpet 678
101. Ipurind tobacco container and inhaler 680
102. Cocama platform bed 693
103. Cocama pottery 696
104. Witoto house 753
105. Witoto drum 758
106. Witoto taking snuff 759
107. Spring-pole trap, Curicuriari River 770
108. Northwest Amazon blowguns 771
109. Poisoned arrow point of the Guariua, northwest Amazon 771
110. Cumaca hut 774
111. Baniva pottery Ill
112. Northwest Amazon pottery types 778
113. Cubeo engraved gourd rattle 790
114. House decorations of the northwest Amazon 790
115. Indian children of the northwest Amazon 791
116. Tuyuca "Yurupary" feast 792
117. Tuyuca "Yurupary" dancer 792
118. Wooden cigar-holder, northwest Amazon, Tiquie River 794
119. Guiana banabs, or temporary shelter frames 830
120. Guiana house frames 831
121. Caramacoto house 832
122. Guiana wooden seats 833
123. Guiana bark canoes 837
124. Rucuyen woman spinning 838
125. Guiana cotton cord making 840
126. Guiana hammock making 841
XX ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
127. Guiana hammock making 842
128. Guiana hammock making 843
129. Guiana hammock making 844
130. Manufacture of a Guiana (Warrau) ite (sensoro) hammock 845
131. Guiana manufactures 846
132. Guiana bead-apron technique 847
133. Guiana bead-apron technique 848
134. Warrau burial 877
MAPS
1. Areas of South America covered by Volumes 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the
Handbook xxvi
2. Archeological sites of the lower Amazon and the Guianas 150
3. The tribes of Central Brazil (facing) 284
4. The tribes of eastern Bolivia 382
5. The native tribes of the Montana and the western Amazon Basin (facing) 508
6. The post-Conquest expansion of Quechua into the Montana 514
7. The tribes of the Guianas (facing) 800
8. Cultural divisions of the area included in the present volume 884
PREFACE
Conciseness is possible only when data are fully understood. Repre-
sentation of cultural forms no less than of physical objects may be
accomplished in a few incisive strokes if the outlines are clearly per-
ceived, but when they are blurred or invisible the only recourse is to
set down all fragments in the hope that further knowledge or study
may reveal the true forms. Prolixness in the present volume is inevitable.
Despite the comparative uniformity of the Tropical Forest cultures and
their environments, the descriptions have required at least twice the
space of the far more complex Andean cultures. This is explainable by
the inadequacy of sources. Not over half a dozen of the hundreds of
tribes have been described with the completeness demanded by modern
ethnology. Information is largely from random travelers' observations —
mention of a lip plug here, a cultivated plant there, a house type elsewhere.
Compilation of all the information from the many scattered sources
leaves the tribal pictures overloaded with minutiae, usually of dress,
ornaments, and weapons, while the essential outlines of the cultures are
not even suggested. The authors have, therefore, presented their data
in some fullness rather than select or suppress detail in favor of broad
patterns that can only be guessed and that, therefore, may prove to be
fictitious. This emphasis on detail has led to division of the area into
a large number of small groups — in some cases, individual tribes — with
a consequent repetition of the commoner culture elements. At the same
time, it gives the impression of capricious distributions and of bewilder-
ing variety, for detached elements continually appear without any apparent
relationship to the culture contexts. Further field work in archeology,
linguistics, and ethnology, all desperately needed in the area, and com-
parative studies of existing data should go far toward permitting a
synthesis of these data in terms of ecological, historical, and configurational
factors.
It was the original plan to include in Volume 3 all the Tropical Forest
and Savanna tribes of southern and eastern Brazil, the Amazon, the
Guianas, lowland Venezuela and Colombia, the Antilles, and Central
America. It has become evident, however, that the tribes of Venezuela
north of the Orinoco River and of the northern portions of Colombia
differed from the peoples of the Amazon in many important respects.
The Antilles, especially before the Carib invasions, shared some of the
distinctive Venezuelan culture. Central America, though having greater
similarity to the Tropical Forests than to the adjoining Andean or Mexi-
can cultures, was strongly influenced by the latter. In view of these
cultural relationships, it has seemed desirable to reserve Central America,
Northwestern South America, and the Antilles for a separate volume,
XXI
XXn PREFACE
which will be the fourth of the Handbook. The present volume, therefore,
includes only those Tropical Forest and Savanna peoples south of the
Orinoco River.
When preparation of this volume began, the culture areas were so
imperfectly known that it was impossible to use them as a basis for plan-
ning and assigning articles. Their determination had to await a com-
parative study of the finished articles. Contributors were, therefore,
requested to describe the tribes or regions that they knew from previous
experience or for which they had access to the literature. The articles
are arranged in major areas, corresponding to the five parts of the volume.
But these are only in part culture areas. (Compare map 1, showing the
coverage of these parts, and map 8, the culture areas.) Haphazard as
the arrangement of articles may appear in hindsight, they place on record
sufficient detailed data with information on the sources to provide guides
to the essential facts about all the tribes. They are not exhaustive, however,
and do not presume to supersede all previous works. Lowie's Introduction
gives some hint of the richness of material to be found in original sources,
and works such as Nordenskiold's comparative studies contain abundant
material not recorded here.
The articles differ widely in scope. Some, especially those on the
Guarani, the Tupinamba, the Montana, the Jurua-Purus region, and the
Guianas, represent a general survey of the literature and are broadly
synthetic. Others, such as that on the Uaupes-Caqueta and Nimuenda-
ju's large number of short articles on tribes south of the lower Amazon,
are based upon much original field work as well as upon the literature.
Still others, for instance the Tenetehara, the Tapirape, the Carajd, the
Nambicuara, and the Tucuna, are essentially original reports of field work
done by the authors of these articles. In general, tribes which are little-
known through existing literature are treated most fully.
Lowie has provided a general view of the Tropical Forest cultures in
his Introduction, utilizing articles in this volume and various primary
sources, such as Koch-Griinberg, Roth, and Nimuendaju, according to
their adequacy in describing the diflFerent features of the culture. The
Introduction is not a summary of the present volume, but rather a com-
posite picture, with variations and their distributions noted only for the
more important features.
At the end of the volume, the editor has attempted to group the
tribes described in tentative culture areas. This is based essentially on
the material of the present volume. It shows some of those groups of
elements which give the cultures their local character.
This volume is written largely from the point of view of the aboriginal
Indian, not because of any prejudice with respect to acculturation but
because the anthropology of the area has traditionally been oriented in
this direction. As Indians lived in an independent and primitive state
PREFACE XXIII
in this area long after tiiey were subdued elsewhere — a half million or
more wild Indians still inhabit the less accessible portions of it, some of
them not yet contacted by Whites — anthropology naturally has directed
its attention to recording the pre-Columbian cultures so richly repre-
sented. As Indians became absorbed into the national populations, losing
their cultural identity, they passed from the purview of anthropology.
It is true that the changes in native culture wrought by missionary teach-
ing, steel tools, Old World domesticated plants and animals, and other
factors incident to the coming of the Whites and even of the Negroes
are noted from time to time. But preoccupation with the aboriginal
continues, and the very interesting processes of the Indian's assimilation
of European culture have not been expressly reported. Though accul-
turation in this area is not so compelling a practical problem as in areas
such as the Andes, where the Indian culture is still a matter of some
national concern, it is no less important scientifically, for distinctive
processes are represented.
Bibliography. — ^The bibliography of the tribes covered in this volume
has been presented with a fullness commensurate with the need, for space
prohibits inclusion of all items submitted by contributors. Where full
bibliographies have been published previously, the present volume includes
only sources actually cited in the articles, but where no large bibliographies
are in print, every item submitted is included. The bibliographies are
limited to literature cited in the case of the Montaiia, covered by Tessmann
(1930) ; the tribes of eastern Bolivia, published by Metraux (1942) ; and
the Tupinamba, also given by Metraux (1928 a, b). For the remaining
tribes and regions, all items are included here, thus affording unusually
complete bibliographies which probably omit only very rare or local
sources and an imdetermined amount of archival material.
A rich and virtually untapped source of information is the museums.
The contributors have undertaken no museum research, believing that
this should wait until after the war when there will be more time and
easier transportation and when such European collections as remain may
be studied.
Tribal locations. — Because an unusually large number of tribes is cov-
ered in this volume, the location of each by the nearest degree of latitude
and longitude is given as an aid to finding them on the map.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To the many contributors to the third volume of the Handbook the
editor wishes to express deepest gratitude. Their fine cooperation in
helping solve the many technical problems of coordinating the various
articles has enormously lightened the task of preparing the volume.
Special thanks are due Dr. Robert H. Lowie, Dr. Curt Nimuendajii, and
Dr. Alfred Metraux for their generous assistance in the scientific editing
XXIV PREFACE
of many articles besides their own, and to Dr. Gordon Willey and Miss
Ethelwyn Carter for their consistent devotion to the innumerable chores
necessary to the work.
We are also grateful to the Central Translating Division of the De-
partment of State and to the Strategic Index of the Americas for assist-
ance in translating many articles written in Portuguese.
Illustrations have been drawn from many sources. The American
Museum of Natural History, New York ; The University Museum, Phila-
delphia; the Museo Etnografico de la Facultad de Filosofia y Letras,
Buenos Aires; the Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Belem do Para; the
National Geographic Magazine, Washington, D. C. ; and the Museo de
Ciencias Naturales, Asuncion, Paraguay, have generously permitted the
Handbook to utilize photographs from their large collections. Special
mention must be made of the large series of excellent photographs of
the Yagua and Witoto Indians furnished by Dr. Paul Fejos of the Viking
Fund, New York City. Other individuals who have kindly furnished
photographs are Albert W. Stevens, H. E. Anthony, Llewelyn Williams,
G. H. H. Tate, C. B. Hitchcock, Claude Levi-Strauss, M. W. Stirling,
Max Schmidt, Charles Wagley, James Sawders, Curt Nimuendajii, Irving
Goldman, Batista Venturello, and T. D. Carter,
Julian H. Steward, Editor.
CONTRIBUTORS TO VOLUME 3
OF THE
HANDBOOK OF SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS
Francisco de Aparicio, Museo Etnogrdfico de la Facultad de Filosojia
y Letras, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Eduardo Galvao, Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
John Gillin/ Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Duke Uni-
versity, Durham, N. C.
Irving Goldman,^ Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, Washington,
D. C.
Allan Holmberg,^ Rubber Development Corporation, Washington, D. C.
Donald Horton, Columbia Broadcasting System Television, New
York, N. Y.
Paul Kirch hoff, Escuela Nacional de Antropologia, Instituto Nacional
de Antropologia e Historia, Mexico, D. F.
Claude Levi-Strauss, Ecole Libre des Hautes Etudes, New School for
Social Research, New York, N. Y.
William Lipkind, Office of War Information, Washington, D. C.
Robert H. Lowie^ Department of Anthropology, University of California,
Berkeley, California.
Betty J. Meggers/ Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Alfred Metraux,^ Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.
Curt Nimuendaju,® Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Belem do Para,
Brazil.
Julian H. Steward/ Institute of Social Anthropology, Smithsonian
Institution, Washington, D. C.
Charles Wagley, Department of Anthropology, Columbia University,
New York, N. Y.
1948.
1 Present address: Institute for Research in Social Science, University of North Carolina,
Chapel Hill, N. C.
2 Present address : United States Department of State, Washington, D. C.
* Present address : Institute of Social Anthropology, Lima, Peru.
* Present address : Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, New York, N. Y.
^ Present address : Department of Social Affairs, United Nations.
* Deceased.
'' Present address: Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, New York, N. Y.
XXV
Map 1— Areas of South America covered by Volumes 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the Handbook
of South American Indians. Diagonal hachure, Marginal Tribes, Volume 1 ; stipled,
Andean Civilizations, Volume 2 ; v^rhite, tribes of the Tropical Forests, Volume 3 ;
vertical hachure, areas covered by Volume 4. These are not culture areas (see
map 8).
XXVI
VOLUME 3. THE TROPICAL FOREST TRIBES
THE TROPICAL FORESTS : AN INTRODUCTION
By Robert H. Lowie
The Tropical Forest area centers in the Amazon region, but the tradi-
tional "Tropical Forest" culture by no means coincides with the geo-
graphical region indicated. In Im Thurn or Koch-Griinberg we constantly
encounter the contrast between selva (pis. 1, bottom; 3) and savanna
(pi. 4, center) without commensurate cultural differences. We must
also reckon with cases of Forest peoples who migrated into new territories,
retaining basic traits, yet losing others for environmental reasons and
borrowing still other features from their new neighbors. The Chiquitos-
Mojos peoples form a good illustration. The Tropical Forest complex is
marked off from the higher Andean civilizations by lacking architectural
and metallurgical refinements, yet outranks cultures with the hunting-
gathering economy of the Botociido or with the moderate horticulture of
the Apinaye (Ge stock). At the core of the area the diagnostic features
are: the cultivation of tropical root crops, especially bitter manioc;
effective river craft ; the use of hammocks as beds ; and the manufacture
of pottery.
The very wide distribution of certain traits in the area is correlated
with navigation. Thanks to their mobility, the canoeing tribes were able
to maintain themselves in the midst of boatless populations, to travel
with ease over periodically inundated tracts, and to diffuse their arts
and customs over enormous distances. The combination of this technologi-
cal factor with natural conditions has produced the extraordinary leveling
of culture ("acculturation" in German parlance) in this area. As Norden-
skiold (1930 a, p. 1 f.) has stressed, northeastern Bolivia looks close to
Peru on a map, but is separated by immense silvan barriers and by un-
navigable watercourses, so that cultural differences obtrude themselves.
On the other hand, the Orinoco and Amazon Basins are linked by the
Casiquiare (pi. 5, center, left, and bottom). Accordingly, earthenware
decoration in Santarem may precisely duplicate details from the Lesser
Antilles (ibid., 16 f.) ; and the Macushi of Guiana no less than the Maue
of the Tapajoz River sling a girl's hammock near the roof when she
attains puberty. (Roth, 1915, p. 311 ; Spix and Martins, 1828-31, 2 :1,318 ;
Bates, 1892, 2:405 f.)
2 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
In so vast a territory, inhabited by diverse stocks, regional variations
are naturally not effaced. Enclaves of ruder tribes impressed early
travelers, as when Bates (1892, 1 :316, 327 f.) noted the isolated Mura
of the lower Madeira River as nonhorticultural fishermen (but see p. 258)
and the Arara as boatless nomads who grew no manioc (pp. 226, 230).
On the other hand, significant traits — say, fish drugging, urucu and genipa
paint, the couvade — have passed far beyond the traditional bearers of
the Tropical Forest mode of life. Nor are features common to simpler
tribes and to manioc-growing canoers necessarily derived from the latter ;
in specific instances the reverse may hold (Metraux, 1928 b, p. 194;
1928 a, p. 168 f.).
Linguistically, we have to deal primarily with three major families,
the Arawakan, the Carihan, and the Tupi-Guarani. The Arawakans were
spread over the Antilles in 1492 and had recently entered the southern
tip of Florida ; in the Antilles, they had been overrun by Cariban invaders ;
in Guiana members of this family were their neighbors. The Mehinacu
of the upper Xingu River, the Mojo of Bolivia, the Paressi of the Mato
Grosso, the Tereno of the Chaco, the Goajiro west of the Gulf of Vene-
zuela, and various groups of the Puriis and upper Ucayali Rivers are
all Araivakan. The Tupi-Guarani are equally far-flung: the majority
live south of the Amazon, including the Aueto of the Xingu headwaters
and the Guarani of the Parana-La Plata region; but we find them also
on the coast of Brazil, north of the Amazon (Oyampt, Emerillon) , on the
Ucayali River (Cocama) , and even near the Andes (Chiriguano) . Of
lesser, but still considerable range, are the Caribans, who turn up near
the Xingu sources {Bacdiri), but most typically jostle Arawakans in
Guiana and the West Indies.
Two other families are the Tucanoan (Betoya) in the Vaupes
(Uaupes)-Yapura-Rio Negro district and the Panoan, whose repre-
sentatives live on the Ucayali, the Javari, the upper Jurua, and the Madeira
Rivers. The Tucano of the Caiari-Vaupes River are typical of the
Tucanoans ; the Conibo on the Ucayali River and the Chacobo Indians
west of the Mamore-Guapore confluence, of the Panoans. The Witoto,
between the upper Yapura and the Putumayo Rivers, form a distinct
linguistic family. "Miranya," like "Digger Indian" in the United States,
designates no fixed unit, but various unrelated tribes ranging between
the Caqueta and the Putumayo Rivers (Koch-Griinberg, 1921, p. 393;
also, this volume, p. 155). The Yuracare along the upper reaches of
western affluents of the Mamore River in eastern Bolivia are a linguisti-
cally isolated Forest people.
CULTURE
SUBSISTENCE ACTIVITIES
Agriculture. — The distinctive achievement of the area is the domestica-
tion and cultivation of tropical root crops (see Sauer, Handbook, vol. 6) —
Vol. 3]
THE TROPICAL FORESTS— LOWIE
bitter and sweet manioc, sweet potatoes, cara, and arrowroot — of which
the poisonous bitter manioc is most important, though it is not known
to all tribes. Seed crops are secondary, but virtually all tribes grow
several varieties of maize. In the marginal region of the Guapore River,
maize and peanuts are the staples, manioc becoming secondary (p. 372).
Indeed, the Nambicuara follow a seasonally alternating pattern, raising
manioc and other crops during the rains, but otherwise practicing a
hunting-gathering economy with the usual sexual division of labor
(pp. 362-363). Native American fruits, particularly palms, are widely
cultivated, but have spread greatly since the Conquest, as have bananas,
sugarcane, and other Old World crops. Indigenous cultivated plants
also include dyes, fish drugs, coca (near the Andes), tobacco, cotton,
and arrow canes or reeds. The domesticated plants and their distribu-
tions are given in the following list.
Cultivated plants of
Name
Faod Plants
*Manioc, cassava (Manihot utilissima) :
Sweet variety (ay pi) : yuca,
macaxeira, macaxera.
Bitter variety : mandioca, maniva,
maniveira.
*Sweet potato, camote (Ipomoea
batatas).
*Yam, cara, carahu (Dioscorea sp.).
*Yautia, malanga, mangareto, mangara
(Xanthosoma sagittifolium) .
*Arrowroot (Maranta arundinacea) .
Maize {Zea mays).
*Cashew, cajui (Anacardimn
occidentale).
*Peanut (Arachis hypogaea).
*Kidney bean {P has eolus vulgaris).
the Tropical Forests^
Occurrence and use
Aboriginal throughout the Tropical
Forests.
Aboriginal to the Guianas, south to the
Gtiarani and Tupinamha, southwest
to the Mojo and Caripuna, little in the
Jurua-Purus region; west to the
Tucano and Tucanoans, except the
Encahellado, but none among other
tribes of Peru and Ecuador.
Aboriginal throughout the Tropical
Forests and Savannas.
The true yam is an old world domesti-
cate, but wild species of Dioscorea
occur in Brazil, some of them perhaps
domesticated, especially cara, grown
throughout the Amazon Basin.
Various native species, being the Ameri-
can equivalent of taro. Brazil, Guianas.
Brazil, Guianas; recent in the Uaupes-
Caqueta region.
An aboriginal staple throughout the
Tropical Forests, most tribes having
many varieties.
Aboriginal to Brazil. Anacardium micro-
carpum bark is used for canoes.
Aboriginal throughout Tropical Forests.
Aboriginal; probably widely distributed
but rarely identified with certainty in
the Tropical Forests.
1 Starred items are discussed in "Cultivated plants of Central and South America," by Carl Sauer,
in Volume 6 of the Handbook, and their identifications conform with Sauer's.
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS
[B.A.B. Bull. 143
Name
Food Plants — Continued
*Lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus).
*Jack bean (Canavalia ensiformis).
*Squash (Cucurbita).
*Papaya, mamoeiro (Carica papaya).
*Surinam cherry (Eugenia unifora).
*Lucutna obovata.
*Guayaba, guava (Psidium guajava).
♦Pineapple {Ananas sativus).
*Banana (Mtisa paradisiaca sapicntmn) .
*Plantain (Musa paradisiaca normalis).
*Inga.
*Sicana {Sicana odorifcra).
* Avocado, abacate {Per sea americana).
*Pepper, aji {Capsicum) .
♦Arracacha (Arracacia xanthorrhisa or
esculent a).
Hualusa {Colocasia esculenta).
Castor oil, mamona {Ricinus
communis) .
*Chonta or pejibaye palm {Guilielma
gasipaes) .
Bacaiuva palm (Acrocomia sp.).
Pupunha palm {Guilielma gasipaes).
Caimito {Chrysophyllum cainito).
Pepino {Solanum muricatum).
Cacabo {Xanthosoma sp.).
*Cacao {Theobroma cacao).
Occurrence and use
Aboriginal among Tupinamba, Maue,
Apiacd, and probably many other
tribes.
Rarely identified but probably of wide
native distribution in Brazil.
Sauer (vol. 6) gives Cucurbita maxima
as the aboriginal Andean species,
which probably occurs also in Brazil,
and C. moschata as the species of
northeastern Brazil.
An aboriginal fruit occurring among all
these tribes though perhaps spread
somewhat since the Conquest. The
fruit is called papaya or manao.
Aboriginal fruit of eastern South
America.
Aboriginal fruit of Brazil.
Probably recently introduced to the
Uaupes-Caqueta area and elsewhere.
Probably aboriginal throughout the
Tropical Forests.
Probably Old World Origin (see vol.
6), but not a staple throughout the
Tropical Forests.
Doubtful whether native America.
Brazil, Montana.
Montaiia ; Uaupes-Caqueta region.
Aboriginal in Brazil, Paraguay. An
unidentified species was grown in
eastern Peru.
Aboriginal (?) in Guianas; eastern
Peru.
Aboriginal, throughout the Tropical
Forests.
Aboriginal root plant ; Mojo.
Upper Guapore River.
among Tacanans.
Upper Xingu River.
Recent ( ?)
Aboriginal in Amazon. This supplies
both food and a widely used bow wood.
Upper Xingu River.
Jurua-Purus Rivers.
Eastern Peru
Eastern Peru
Eastern Peru
Aboriginal in America, but probably
post-Conquest in Tropical Forests,
where wild species were widely
gathered.
Vol. 3]
THE TROPICAL FORESTS— LOWIB
Name
Food Plants — Continued
Frutas de lobo (Solanwn lycocarpum) .
Mangabeira (Hancornia speciosa).
Mamona (Ricimis communis).
Narcotics
*Coca (Erythroxylon coca).
Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum).
Plants used in manufactures
*Cotton (Gossypium harbadense and
G. hirstitum).
*Urucu, achiote, bixa (Bixa orellana).
*Genipa, genipapo, jenipapeiro (Genipa
americana) .
♦Calabash, cujete (Crescentia cujetc).
Gourd (Lagcnaria siceraria).
Reeds, cafia de Castilla, tacuapi
(Arundo donax).
Uba cane {Gynerium sagittatum).
Rhamnidium sp.
Coix lacryma-jobi.
Razor grass (Scleria sp.).
Drugs and Poisons
Nissolia sp.
Barbasco {Lonchocarpus nicou).
Clebadium vargasii.
Tephrosia {Tephrosia toxicaria).
Occurrence and use
Upper Xingu River.
Upper Xingu River. Supplies latex for
coaling balls.
Upper Xingu River.
Aboriginal in nortliwestern portion of
Tropical Forests and northern Mon-
tana; Uaupes-Caqueta ; Ipurina.
Aboriginal to most but not all tribes of
the Tropical Forests.
Both species are aboriginal in the
Tropical Forests, but the distinction is
rarely recorded.
Berry used for red dye. Aboriginal
throughout Tropical Forests.
Fruit eaten ; used for black dye. Ab-
original tliroughout Tropical Forests.
Aboriginal probably throughout the
Tropical Forests.
Aboriginal among many Tropical Forest
tribes.
Guarani. Arrow shafts.
Aboriginal on the upper Xingu River.
For arrow shafts.
Shrub. Seeds used for beads. Guarani.
Shrub. Seeds used for beads. Guarani.
Aboriginal on the upper Xingu River.
Sharp blades used for shaving.
Herb used for snake bites, Guarani.
A fish poison : Montana and probably
elsewhere (see p. 518).
A fish poison : Montana and probably
elsewhere (see p. 518).
A fish poison : Montana and probably
elsewhere (see p. 518).
A few tribes of the area, such as the Shiriand, Waica, and Guaharibo
and the Macu of the Rio Negro formerly had no farming, but have re-
cently adopted it from their neighbors. On the other hand, the Guayaki
and the Mura have abandoned cultivation since the Conquest and subsist
solely on hunting and gathering.
The manner of clearing the forest for typical slash-and-burn agri-
culture (pis. 8, top; 111, top; 126) is described on pages 99 and 825. The
men make the clearings, the rest of the work devolves on the women, who
6 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
plant, weed, harvest, and prepare the food. The Chiriguano, under
Andean influence, have in the main mascuHne tillage.
To prepare bitter manioc, the tuber is peeled, washed, and grated on
a board set with spines or stones (pis. 89, bottom; 90, bottom; 111,
bottom), the resulting pulp being typically crainmed by handfuls into a
cylindrical basketry press (tipiti) with an upper and a lower loop (pis.
90, top; 111, center). The upper loop is hung from a projecting house
beam, while a strong pole is passed through the lower and put under the
fulcrum made by tying a stick to a house post at an acute angle. A woman
sits on the free end of the pole, thus extending the container and diminish-
ing its diameter. The poisonous prussic acid thus squeezed out through
the interstices of the basketwork is allowed to drip into a vessel. The
purged pasty mass is shaken out as a snow-white, nearly dry mass, which
is pounded in a mortar and passed through a sifter, falling on a mat. The
resultant starchy whitish powder is either (a) baked on a clay grid into
thin flat cakes, "beiju," or {b) prevented from consolidation by stirring,
thus yielding an accumulation of small, dry crumbs, "farinha" pellets,
like those of white bread. Of a morning an Aparai woman may prepare
30 beiju — the weekly household supply; well-baked and dried, these will
keep for a long time, as will the pea-sized pellets, so that both products
provide serviceable traveling fare. (Speiser, 1926, p. 146; Roth. 1924,
pp. 217, 277 ff. ; Im Thurn, 1883, p. 252, Further details on manioc
preparation will be found on pp. 102, 200, 413, 450, 666, 772-773, 829.)
Naturally, the processes varied somewhat locally. On the upper
Amazon it was possible to plant manioc on the earthy banks without the
necessity for a clearing (Bates, 1863, p. 210), and the period of matura-
tion is variously given as 9 months, 10 months, or even 2 years. (P. 692;
also Roth, 1924, p. 216; Im Thurn, 1883, p. 251; Koch-Griinberg, 1921,
p. 334.) The basketry press obviously presupposes earlier developmental
stages, such as are noted among the Witoto and on the upper Purus River,
where muscular effort is required to wring the poison by hand out of
a plaited sack. This may represent an earlier technique (Metraux,
1928 a, pp. 104, 114 f.). It should be noted, however, that boiling is
probably sufficient to drive off the prussic acid.
The aboriginal implements included hafted stone celts for chopping
trees, hardwood shovels, and pointed dibbles (Roth, 1924, p. 214; Koch-
Griinberg, 1921, p. 334). The spade appears in the periphery subject to
Andean influence {Chiriguano).
Collecting. — Collecting wild fruits is naturally less important at the
core of the area than among marginal tribes, such as the Nambicuara,
the Siriono, the Shiriana, or the Macu. Nevertheless, a fairly long roster
of wild species whose fruits and nuts are widely exploited for food
appears in the following list.
Vol. 3]
THE TROPICAL FORESTS— LOWIE
Useful wild plants of the Tropical Forests^
Name
Drugs and Poisons
Assacu, possumwood or sandbox tree
(Hura crepitans).
Ayahuasca, cayapi, yage, huni, hayac-
huasca (Banisteriopsis caapi, B.
inehrians, and B. quitensis).
Borrochera.
Campa.
Cayapi.
Cunambi {Clibadium surinamense) .
Curare, curari.
Curupa.
Datura.
Floripondia, huanto, campa, datura,
borrochera (Datura arborea).
Guayusa (Ilex sp.).
Hayac-huasca.
Huanto.
Huni.
NIopo.
Parica, yupa, niopo.
Phyllanthus conami.
Yage.
Yoco (Paullinia yoco).
Timbo (Paullinea pinnata or
Serjania sp.).
Yupa.
Foods and Manufactures
Achua palm.
Almecega (Tetragastris halsamifera).
Ambaiba.
Anaja, palm (Maximiliana regia).
Andiroba, Brazilian mahogany (Carapa
guianensis) .
Occurrence and use
Widely used for drugging fish.
A strong drug, used especially among
tribes of the upper Amazon.
See Ayahuasca.
See Floripondia.
See Ayahuasca.
A small tree, the leaves of which are
used to drug fish.
A deadly poison, used generally for
blowgun darts, made from a liana,
Strychnos toxifera.
The leaves of Mimosa aracioides,
pow^dered and taken as snuff or as an
enema for magical and therapeutic
effects.
See Floripondia.
A strong intoxicating drug, used espe-
cially among tribes of the upper
Amazon.
An anesthetizing drug, used in eastern
Ecuador.
See Ayahuasca.
See Floripondia.
See Ayahuasca.
See Parica.
The seeds of Mimosa acacioides, pow-
dered and taken as snuff for a stimu-
lant.
A fish drug.
See Ayahuasca.
A stimulating drug, used in Colombia.
Fish drug.
See Parica.
See Burity.
Resin used for lighting.
A mulberry tree of the genus Cecropia,
yielding various products.
The shoots yield a fiber used in the man-
ufacture of mats, baskets, screens, and
hats.
The seeds contain oil used by the natives
for insect bites and lighting purposes.
^ The present list includes principally the plants mentioned in the present volume. A more
thorough study of the wild-plant resources will be found in Volume 6 of the Handbook.
653333-^7—3
8
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS
[B.A.E. Bull. 143
Name
Foods and Manufactures — Continued
Angelim (Andira sp.).
Aratazeiro.
Arrow reed (Gynerium sac char oide s) .
Assai {Euterpe oleracea).
Attalea huniboldtiana.
Attalea spectabilis.
Araucaria brasiliensis.
Babassu palm (Orbignya speciosa).
Bacaba palm {Oenocarpus bacaba and
O. distichus).
Bactrix maraja.
Balsa.
Brazil nut, Para nut (Bertholletia
excelsa).
Burity, muriti, miriti, achua palm
(Mauritia flexuosa and M. vinosa).
Bussu palm (Manicaria saccifera).
Cabacinho
Caju {Anacardium occidentale) .
Cajueiro.
Camayuva cane (Guadua sp.).
Carayuru.
Carludovica irigona.
Castanha.
Catizal.
Cedar (Cedrela angustifolia) .
Cumarii (Coumarouna odorata).
Cupuassu (Theobroma grandiflorum) .
Curaua.
Occurretice and use
Dugout wood.
Anonaceae. Bow wood.
Arrow shafts.
A very common palm from the fruit of
which a beverage of the same name is
made.
Palm with an edible fruit.
Palm with an edible fruit.
A pine with an edible nut in Guarani
country.
Widely distributed on the uplands, sup-
plying an important edible oil from the
hard kernels of its prolific fruit.
Abundant througout the Amazon Valley,
supplying cooking oils from the nuts
and a drink similar to assai from the
pulp of the fruit.
Palm with an edible fruit.
See Palo de balsa.
Important food.
Edible fruit and pith ; fibers used for
cordage, clothing, hammocks, and
roofing; trunk contains edible beetle
larvae.
The leaves, resembling those of a banana
tree, make an excellent, durable thatch.
A variety of cacao fruit.
Edible fruit.
The tree, Anacardium occidentale.
Used for arrow shafts.
Pigment from leaves of Bignonia chica.
Basket material.
A Brazil nut or cashew nut. Castanha
de Para — Bertholletia excelsa, a cas-
tanha or Brazil nut. Castanha sapu-
caia — Lecythis paracusis, a nut from
the sapucaia ; a paradise or cream nut.
See Paxiuba.
Tree used to make dugout canoes.
A tree which yields the tonka bean, a
source of vanillalike flavoring.
A plant very closely related to the cacao
tree, whose pulp is used as a flavoring
or as a preserve, with seeds yielding
a white fat similar to cocoa butter.
A plant of the Bromeliaceae family
whose leaves supply fibers used for the
manufacture of hammocks and cord-
age.
Vol. 3 J
THE TROPICAL FORESTS— LOWIE
Name
Foods and Manufactures— Continued
Curua piranga.
Embira (Conratari sp.).
Euterpe oleracea.
Greenheart (Nectandra rodioei).
Guarana (Paullinia sorbilis, P. cupana).
Hymenaca conrbaril.
lacareva {Calophyllmn sp.).
Itauba.
Jabota {Cassia blancheti).
Jatahy.
Jauary {As trocar yum jauary).
Jerimu, jerimum.
Manga (Mangifera indica).
Masaranduba (Mimusops excelsa).
Miriti.
Moronohea coccinea.
Muriti.
Nibi (Carludovica) .
Oenocarpiis sp.
Palo de balsa {O chroma spp.).
Para.
Pau d'arco (Tecojiia sp.).
Paxiuba, pashiuba palm, barrigon
(Iriartea ventricosa) .
Leopardwood {Brosimmn aubletii).
Occurrence and use
(1) A widely distributed palm (Attalea
spectabilis) bearing oil-producing
seeds ; (2) a palm (A. tnonosparma)
whose leaves are used for thatch.
The fiber is used for making hammocks,
cordage, bowstrings, etc.
A palm with an edible fruit.
Seeds eaten.
P. sorbilis seeds used as medicine ; P. cu-
pana, to flavor a beverage.
Resin used as pot glaze.
Dugout wood.
Common name of three species of trees
of the Lauraceae family (Ocoiea
megaphylla, Silvia itauba, and Silvia
duckci) whose wood is excellent for
making boats and canoes.
A tree, the bark of which is used to
make canoes.
A tree, the bark of which is used to
make canoes.
One of the most common palms on the
low varzeas, the folioles of which are
used to make lightweight hats, the
skin of the petiole to weave mats,
sieves, manioc tipitis, hammocks, etc.,
the fleshy part of the fruit being used
as an edible oil.
The fruit of the serimuzeiro tree (abo-
bora in the southern States).
A mango, the fruit of the mango tree.
A tree yielding an edible fruit.
See Burity.
The gum of this plant is made into a
glue.
See Burity.
A vine, used for basketry material.
A palm with an edible fruit.
A very light wood used for making
rafts, often called "balsas."
Brazil nut.
Bow wood.
The bark used for bedding and wall
covers, the trunk for canoes, bows,
flutes, etc. An unidentified species,
called catizal, provides thorns for
manioc graters.
A bow wood.
10
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS
[B.A.E. Bull. 143
Name
Foods and Manufactures — Continued
Pequi, pequia, piquia (^Caryocar
villosum) .
Protium heptaphyllum.
Siriva palm (Cocos sp.).
Tabebuia longipes.
Tauari.
Tucuma.
Urucuri palm (Attalea excelsa).
Vismia guianensis.
Occurrence and use
These species are the largest in the
Amazon Valley, attaining a diameter
of more than 5 meters at the base of
the trunk. Oleaginous seeds (50 per-
cent oil) are contained within the
roundish fruit, which is 45 percent oil ;
the cooked seeds are edible.
Rosin used for lighting.
Wood used for clubs.
The gum used as adhesive.
See Embira.
Any of several commercially important
palms which yield textile fibers, and in
some cases also edible fruits used for
making wine; specifically, Acrocomia
officinalis, Bactris setosa, and especially
Astrocaryum tucuma, the tucuma palm,
the leaves of which furnish excellent
coarse fibers used in manufacturing
rope, hammocks, hats, etc., and the
nuts of which are used as blunt arrow-
heads and as beads.
Rosin used in pot glaze.
Under the head of collecting also falls the gathering of such animal
food as mollusks, caterpillars, larvae, and ants, some of which are treated
as delicacies or relishes. Wild honey is easily secured from the virtually
stingless species of the Meliponinae in the Orinoco region and is every-
where a favorite food. The Guayaki largely subsist on honey, fruits,
and other parts of the pindo palm and on the grubs of beetles.
Hunting. — The relative importance and the purpose of hunting vary
locally. Game, especially the peccary, is usually sought for food, but
many species are taboo to various tribes. The Caraja hunt primarily
to obtain feathers, while the Mojo are most interested in stalking the
jaguar in order to win honors. Hunting is generally of secondary im-
portance among the tribes of the major rivers, who obtain their protein
more readily from fish, turtles, turtle eggs, and manatee than from forest
game.
Dogs are used in the chase, but were aboriginally absent in many tribes.
As for hunting techniques, the Guiana Indians manifest virtually all
the tricks adaptable to their fauna. They imitate the call of the tapir,
deer, monkeys, and birds to allay their suspicions ; stalk deer ; fire the
savanna grass and encircle large game in communal drives ; dig out
armadillos from their burrows; or lie in ambush, screened by a shelter
built on the ground or in a tree. On the Orinoco River the manatee is
Vol. 3] THE TROPICAL FORESTS— LOWIB 11
harpooned from a canoe paddled by the hunter's wife, while on the
Amazon it is caught in a net and killed by driving a wooden plug up
its nostrils. (See also pp. 258, 517, 827.) Among the Mojo, as in Mexico,
Chiriqui, Haiti, and on Lake Maracaibo, ducks are familiarized with the
sight of floating calabashes so that a swimmer wearing a headgear of cala-
bash shell may catch the birds with his bare hands (p. 413; also Norden-
skiold, 1931 b, p. 43). The Indians also use various snares, traps (pis. 72;
112, bottom; figs. 52, 62), deadfalls, and blinds (pi. 114, bottom) ; some
of these devices may be due to Negro influence.
The distinctive hunting weapon of the region is the blowgun (pis. 7,
left; 7Z; 74; 110, top) ; it is conspicuous in the western tribes of the
Guianas, on the upper Amazon, and in adjoining districts, and it appears
as far south as the Pawumwa of the Guapore River and in the gallery
forests of the Province of Mojos. In many of these localities, however,
it is recent, and it never reached the Tupinamba nor the tribes of the
lower Madeira, Tapajoz, Xingu, and Tocantins Rivers. Its diffusion
seems clearly to have been from the north or northwest, and, although
availability of materials for its manufacture may have conditioned its
local occurrence, its wide post-Columbian spread, as Nordenskiold has
suggested, may have hinged on that of curare. Curare is the deadly
poison which makes the slim darts eflFective and led various tribes to
supplant their earlier spear throwers and bows with blowguns (Norden-
skiold, 1924 b, pp. 57-64, map 7; also, this vol., pp. 33, 355). So rapidly
and widely has the blowgun spread that Stirling (1938) has even sug-
gested its post-Conquest introduction to the New World.
The blowgun is used solely for hunting, never for warfare.
The blowgun may consist of two complete tubes, one within the other;
or of an inner tube within a case of two split halves ; or of a single tube
composed of two split halves each carefully grooved and tightly strapped
together. The length may be anywhere from 8 to 10 feet (2.4 to 3 m.)
or even 16 feet (4.8 m.). A sudden puff of breath applied to a small
truncate mouthpiece forces out the dart, which is usually of palmwood
the thickness of a knitting needle, from 9 to 16 inches (23 to 40 cm.)
in length, and tipped with the poison. Curare may kill the quarry within
a few minutes. A good marksman will strike his target at a distance
of 120 feet (36 m.). The noiselessness of the procedure enables the
natives to shoot from its perch one bird or monkey after another ; which
explains their preference of the blowgun to firearms. Quivers are
variously made: the Aiari River Indians make a basketry tube about
17 inches (43 cm.) long and constricted toward the middle, the bottom
being of wood or a piece of calabash. The lower part is externally coated
with pitch, the rest with a finer plaitwork which displays the black and
red meander patterns typical of the regional basketwork and also painted
on pottery. Elsewhere, a section of bamboo is used.
12 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
Since neither the requisite wood or cane nor the poison is of general
occurrence, the blowgun and its accessories are traded over considerable
distances.
However, the presence of the blowgun does not exclude the bow, which
serves against larger quadrupeds even in the center of the blowgun area.
Tropical Forest bows are notable for their great length — those of the
Siriono are 9 feet (2.8 m.) long with arrows to match — perhaps neces-
sitated by the common use of palmwood, especially chonta. The material
for the stave varies locally, however; leopardwood (Brosimum auhletn)
is traded between Brazil and Guiana. Among a few tribes, the median
cross section is circular, but among most it is semicircular or flat.
The bowstring is of wild-plant fibers, particularly tucum. Arrows
nearly everywhere have cane shafts and five types of heads : (1 ) A large,
lanceolate bamboo blade (pi. 6, left, bottom) ; (2) a jagged, rodlike point
of hardwood, bone, or a sting ray, often with additional barbs; (3) a
blunt knobbed head for stunning birds ; (4) several diverging points
for impaling fish; and (5) harpoon heads for aquatic game. Additional
types of limited distribution are whistling arrows, with a hollow nut
on the tip, and incendiary arrows. Stone, being unknown throughout
most of the area, is rarely employed for heads.
To make an arrow in the Guianas, the barbed tip formerly was fixed
in a slot tediously prepared by first drilling holes adjoining one another
with a deer-horn tool, with which the intervening material was removed.
Wedged in this groove, the bone was fastened with twine and cement.
The shaft is of arrow reed (Gynerium saccharoides) , sometimes specially
grown for the purpose. It is two-feathered if intended for the air,
unfeathered for shooting fish.
Poison is employed on arrow points much less commonly than on
blowgun darts. Sometimes curare is used, sometimes other ingredients.
As for the release, the Aiari River Indians hold the nock of the
arrow between the thumb and index, the other fingers merely pressing
against the palm of the hand. This primary release is noted for the
Guianas, where Roth, however, also observed the string pressed upon
by the index finger alone. The Arawakan Baniva (upper Orinoco River)
draw their bows with their feet ; and on the upper Rio Negro, a nocturnal
fish-hunter pulls his string and the extra short shaft with his mouth
while holding his bow in his left hand and a torch in his right (Koch-
Griinberg, 1921, p. 246).
Recently, thrusting spears of wood tipped with lanceolate iron points
are used against peccaries and jaguars on the upper Rio Negro. Anciently,
the metal heads may have been preceded by quartz or jasper equivalents,
such as occur archeologically in northwestern coastal British Guiana.
Domesticated animals and pets. — Dogs are found among nearly all
the Tropical Forest tribes, but their aboriginal distribution is open to
Vol. 3] THE TROPICAL FORESTS— LOWIE 13
question, despite their pre-Columbian occurrence in the Andes and the
Antilles. Failure of the early chroniclers to mention them casts doubt
on their antiquity in the Amazon area, but their general importance to
the chase mitigates the conclusiveness of this negative evidence. At least
in the Guianas and vicinity, the dogs seem to be cross-bred from the
indigenous ones and European imports. The Nambicuara, however,
obtained theirs from the Rondon expedition.
Several tribes exhibit incipient stages of beekeeping. The Paressi
keep bees (Trigona jati) in gourd hives (p. 351) ; the Macuna and the
Menimehe, in a section of a hollow log tied to a house beam, and hanging
6 feet (2 m.) above the ground (Koch-Griinberg, 1921, p. 385; Whiflfen,
1915, p. 51). (For American distribution, see Nordenskiold, 1930 c,
pp. 196-210.)
The Muscovy duck (see Handbook, vol. 6) was kept under domestica-
tion by the Guarani, and probably by the Tupinamba, the Mojo, and the
Montana tribes.
Pigs and chickens were widely adopted from Europeans, and, in the
grasslands of the Province of Mojos, cattle. The Mojo had many cattle,
but the Maropa were better herders (p. 443).
As pets, the Indians keep all sorts of birds and beasts, including
monkeys and agoutis. Women often suckle young mammals as they
would their own offspring.
Fishing. — Both nonhorticultural populations like the Mura of the lower
Madeira River (p. 258; also Bates, 1892, p. 327) and many northwest
Brazilian manioc growers were above all fishermen, and even elsewhere
within the area the relevant processes were important. Of these, drugging
was probably the most productive (pi. 109, top). Over a hundred narcotic
species are known to have been applied, many of them in the Amazon-
Orinoco region. (See Handbook, vol. 5; also Killip and Smith, 1931.)
Perhaps the most graphic account is by Spix and Martins (1823-31,
3:1063-1065), which states that large quantities of timbo tendrils were
crushed and carried in boats along the surface of the water, causing the
fish to become dizzy and to leap up or drift unresistingly till they could
be shot or picked up by hand.
Another widespread practice is to shoot fish with bows and arrows,
(pis. 6, right; 109, bottom), a technique extended with detachable heads
(harpoon arrows) to turtles (pi. 48, bottom). Fish spears (pi. 6, top,
left) are also commonly used.
Nets with sinkers had a very restricted distribution in pre-Columbian
South America, and are lacking in our area, owing, no doubt, largely
to the many trees and branches in the rivers that would render them
useless. But dip nets (pi. 101, center) are widespread, especially on the
upper Amazon, where they are made of tough tucum fiber.
14 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
Basketwork is used in various ways to entrap fish. In very shallow
water or mud an open-mouthed basket is thrown over the fish, which
are extracted by hand through the orifice. Widespread is the use of
creels and basketry traps.
Weirs (pi. 89, top) and stone dams, combined with bailing out water
from the enclosed area or with drugging, are often constructed with
great care.
In contrast to the Andean hooks of copper and gold, the fishhooks of the
Amazon-Orinoco — if present at all — were of bone, wood, or spines. In
Witoto mythology there is a reference to a naturally barbed hook made
of a bat's elbow (Preuss, 1921, 1:71). Bait, which is also used to lure
fish within arrow range, consists of berries, seeds, ants, spiders, etc.
(For Fishing, see Roth, 1924, pp. 189-201 ; Koch-Grunberg, 1921, pp.
242-257; Nordenskiold, 1924 b, pp. 86-102, maps, 8-11; 1922, pp.
131-133.)
The habits of fish in the upper Rio Negro country locally necessitate
an adaptive nomadism. Though the Indians of the Caiari-Vaupes dis-
trict with its abundant supply throughout the year can afiford stability,
the minor streams elsewhere dry up from December to March, so that
the fish retreat to the main rivers and the natives must follow suit, ex-
ploiting one locality after another until even larger species ascend the
tributaries. For the 3-month migratory period the Indians provide them-
selves with basketfuls of large dried manioc cakes.
Food preparation. — The preparation of manioc cakes and pellets has
already been sketched. After the starchy sediment of the expressed
juice has settled, the water is poured oflF and boiled for several hours
with peppers, being thus thickened into "cassarip." This somewhat
acid broth may receive additions such as meat, small fish, or even ants.
All animal food is boiled with water or cassarip, yielding the character-
istic "pepper pot," meat being thus boiled daily by way of preserving it.
Typical is the baking and smoke-drying of meat or fish, which would
rapidly spoil in the humid climate, on a "babracot," i.e., a three- or four-
legged stage (fig. 1, d, e; pi. 117, bottom, right). On the Orinoco, sun-
dried fish are pulverized without removal of the bones, mixed with water,
and reduced to a paste. In the same region a turtle would be placed in
a pit in the ground and covered with sand, a big fire being lit on top.
In Guiana and on the Amazon quantities of turtle eggs are placed on
frames and dried over a slow fire or in the sun. The oil is extracted by
trampling the eggs in a canoe and skimming it ofif the top. It is used
for anointment, cooking, and lighting, and is a favorite article of barter.
For mealing there are wooden pestles and mortars, the latter being
sunk into the ground in Guiana and elsewhere so that only a few inches
project above ground (pi. 8, bottom). The pestle, which has an ill-
defined head, is here used with a grinding rather than stamping movement.
Vol. 3]
THE TROPICAL FORESTS— LOWIE
15
Figure 1. — Tropical Forest crafts, a, Mojo pottery grinder and mano; h, Chimane
wood slab and stone mano ; c, Chacoho wooden trough and block for food grinding ;
d, Bacdiri babracot; e, Chacoho babracot. (After Nordenskiold, 1924 b, maps
16, 15.)
653333 — 47—4
16 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
The former use of stone querns, pestles, and mortars is proved by
museum specimens in British Guiana (Roth, 1924, pi. 82). Nearer the
Andes, a wooden grinding trough (fig. 1, c) is used instead of the mortar,
but a flat stone slab (fig. 1, b) is employed by the Chimane. Pottery
grinders (fig. 1, a) have been found archeologically in the Province of
Mojos.
Women boil food, men bake or broil it.
For griddles, naturally split slabs of granite and gneiss have been
used even in recent times. More commonly the stoves are of clay and
rest on blocks of the same material (pi. 90, center). Pots are similarly
put either on stones arranged tripod-fashion or on three clay cylinders.
Salt, though comparatively rare, is imported from other regions or
obtained directly from saline incrustations in the savanna and from the
ashes of certain palms (Roth, 1924, p. 221 et seq.).
There are usually two main meals, in the morning and evening, respec-
tively. Husband and wife in general eat separately.
Geophagy occurs in the area, e.g., commonly in the Jurua-Purus region.
The Caripii'na of Bolivia eat a salty earth.
VILLAGES AND HOUSES
Dwellings and other structures. — The mode of settlement varies.
Some houses are designed to accommodate single families, others to hold
many families (pis. 30, top; 81, bottom; 126). One structure of either
type may constitute a village, or several may be scattered in near proximity
to one another or grouped to form a compact hamlet (pi. 106, bottom).
Possibly a thousand Yuracare are spread over an enormous silvan tract,
along the Chimore River and other affluents of the Mamore River, one
or two families living by themselves, often miles from their neighbors.
The primeval forest virtually starts at the rear walls of their dwellings,
which are usually on sites affording at least provisional security from
periodic inundations. Characteristic of many groups in the culture area
is the large communal house of, say, 20 to 70 residents (Yecuana and
Giiinau) ; Tupari (Guapore River) houses are said to shelter up to 35
families, A Tupinamba village consists of 4 to 8 houses, each accommo-
dating 30 to 200 families. Often a single structure, or a pair of this type,
accommodates the entire population (Aiari River). Here, too, safety
from the annual overflowing of the banks determines the choice of a site,
which is also selected for proximity to potable creek water and for the
fertility of the soil. Elsewhere other motives occur, such as security from
attack or even availability of potter's clay (in Surinam), some Carib
tribes allegedly clinging to the edge of savannas for the latter reason.
The Palicur put up small clusters of habitations on safe forested islands
rising from the savanna or on the savanna itself. Waterways connect one
hut with another, but become unnavigable or even dry in midsummer,
Vol. 3] THE TROPICAL FORESTS— LOWIE 17
SO that visitors must cross series of long logs embedded in the mud. Along
the Amazon River, Carvajal observed in 1542 that the houses formed an
almost continuous village.
Genuine villages are not wholly lacking even where normally the people
live in one or two houses. Thus, the Macushi developed an original hamlet
of two dwellings into an aggregation of 12, ranged in two streets, though
this enlarged settlement, partly due to missionary influence, was reserved
for festive use. The Guarani set four or eight rectangular houses round
a central square plaza, with a double or even triple stockade enclosing
the hamlet. Palisades are also attested for the Tupinamha (figs. 6, top;
11, top; 12, lejt), the Guarani, Tuhi-Catvahih, and for some of the Guiana
Arawak and Carib tribes.
The two main types of dwellings differ according to their round or
oblong group plan. Nordenskiold (1924 b, 3:24 et seq.) suspected the
aboriginal character of rectangular houses outside the Andean region.
Unquestionably right in contending that many native groups rapidly
adopted the rectangular plan of White neighbors, he seems to have gone
too far, for (Friederici, 1925, p. 53) there are sundry unexceptionable
early references to oblong houses, e.g., near the Yapura confluence.
As a matter of fact, several types must be distinguished. The Palicur
anciently occupied beehive huts with walls and roof merging; a low en-
trance was closed at night in order to exclude mosquitoes. Another form,
shared by Arawakan and Cariban groups, has palm-leaf thatch covering
two rows of elastic rods bent over to yield a pointed arch. Widespread
(Taulipdng, Wapishana, early Mojo, etc.) is a conical roof on a cylin-
drical substructure, which either remains unenclosed or is walled with
bark, wood, leaves, or mud, all these variations sometimes occurring
within the same tribe. When small, such huts have a single, low entrance ;
otherwise there will be two doors on opposite sides, reserved for men
and women, respectively. An important variant results when two or
even three posts connected by a small ridge pole take the place of the
single post terminating in the apex of the cone. The ground plan thus
grows somewhat elliptical. However, one or even both gables may be
made straight instead of rounded. Thus, there is a genetic tie between
the circular and the rectangular forms. Indeed, on the Vaupes River, where
Wallace saw houses semicircular in the back but otherwise parallelo-
grams in outline, Koch-Grunberg found a wholly rectangular ground
plan. Some of these houses are immense, one described by Wallace being
115 feet (34'.5 m.) long, 75 feet (22.5 m.) wide, and 30 feet (9.1 m.)
in height and regularly inhabited by about 100 persons, with three or
four times that number on festive occasions. The doors are regularly on
the gable sides.
Among the simplest habitations of the area are those of the semi-
nomadic Nambictmra, who most of the year content themselves in the
18 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
wind-screens (pi. 37, center, left), resorting to palm-thatched beehive
huts (pi. 37, top, left) during the rainy season, and of the Pirahd, who
make only temporary, flimsy shelters.
Pile dwellings are found among various tribes, especially in Guiana
and vicinity, not only on the coast or in the swampy Warrau country, but
also far in the interior, on dry and even hilly terrain. Koch-Griinberg
(1923 a, 3 : 23) and Nordenskiold (1920, p. 4 f.) suggest that these struc-
tures are survivals from a period when their builders inhabited swampy or
coastal districts. Granaries on piles occur among the Chiriguano.
The impermanence of settlement in a particular locality is usually
owing to the exhaustion of the soil, but also to disease and death,
especially that of a chief. Hence, the population of a tract cannot be
directly determined by the number of house sites.
Furniture. — From the time of Columbus' second voyage the hammock
(pis. 101, right; 107, bottom), first noted in Santo Domingo as a regular
contrivance for sleeping, has loomed as diagnostic of the Forest culture
at its core, contrasting with the marginal Namhicuara custom of sleeping
on the ground and the platform bed of the Ge and of the Montafia (figs.
88, 91, 102). The hammock has, however, spread widely within historic
times, being adopted for repose during the day rather than for sleeping
at night (p. 833). It is made of cotton, ite (Mauritia), tucum, and other
materials.
Another household article is a low stool or bench carved from one
solid block (pi. 93, bottom; figs. 19, 122), frequently in the shape of an
animal. The height may be over 1 foot (30.5 cm.) but sometimes does
not exceed 3 inches (8 cm.). Special decorations appear on the shaman's
settee. Simpler are the plain tripod stools cut from a root or a forked
branch with little alteration of the natural growth.
Utensils comprise gourd bottles for drinking water and larger ones
for fermented beverages; calabashes; wooden troughs in the west; vari-
ous clay vessels; mats; diverse baskets and basketry strainers (pi. 117,
bottom, left). The finer treasure baskets rest on crossbeams, which may
also support drinking gourds in bunches, carrying baskets, etc., some-
times suspended from hooks. The only illumination is from the family
fireplaces at night and from whatever light penetrates the narrow en-
trance but for special occasions torches are made from a lump of rosin
glued to the tip of a firebrand.
Three stones or clay cylinders serve as a tripod for the cooking vessels
in the Orinoco and Vaupes River country.
ENGINEERING WORKS
Roads. — ^True roads are often wanting in the forest region, where the
traveler breaks branches to guide him. Between Berbice and Essequibo
the trail was barely 12 inches (30.5 cm.) wide and marked by notches
Vol. 3] THE TROPICAL FORESTS— LOWIE 19
in the trees. In descending walls of rock, crude ladders are sometimes
made of rungs lashed to poles. Leaves and spars provide a sort of cause-
way over swampy or muddy ground. The Mojo or their predecessors
built up long causeways, each paralleled by a ditch or canal (p. 416). In
Palicur country the waterways become unpassable in midsummer, hence
long tree trunks are laid end to end in the mire to afford transit.
In the upper Rio Negro country the Indians frequently pass from one
river to another by following traditional trails affording an easy portage.
Thus, the Tiquie River is connected with the Papury and even with the
Yapura River (Koch-Griinberg, 1921, pp. 171-172).
Bridges. — Bridges are simple, typically consisting of a tree of suitable
height chopped to fall across the water and provided with a handrail.
The Guaharibo build more complex bridges (p. 863).
DRESS AND ORNAMENTS
Clothing. — Originally the natives mostly went naked (pi. 6), as early
17th-century observers noted for both sexes along the Oyapock River.
A penis sheath or other cover, rather accentuating than removing the
impression of nakedness, is widespread (Nordenskiold, 1924 b, p. 147
et seq., map 19). Among the Cubeo and their neighbors in the Caiari-
Vaupes region, women wear a tiny rectangular apron suspended from
a cord of white beads (pi. 104). The men content themselves with a
perineal band of red bast. On the lower Apaporis River a wide and long
girdle of white bast is wrapped tight around the abdomen and fastened
with a black strip of bast (pi. 104) ; and a girdle-cord supports a kilt of
narrow bast strips descending to the feet. Usually part, and sometimes
all, of the strips are pulled through between the legs and secured behind
under the girdle, but those who wear the bast jock-strap customary on
the Caiari River allow the kilt to hang down unconfined (Koch-Griin-
berg, 1921, pp. 271, 380).
When traveling over rocky tracts, savanna dwellers quickly make for
themselves sandals from the bases of Mauritia leaves, the string being
from the fiber of the leaves of this palm. More durable, but harder are
equivalents of deer and tapir hide.
The paucity of clothes markedly contrasts with the profusion of bodily
decoration.
Probably owing to Andean influence, the tribes of the western periphery
of the area wear more complete garments — the cushma of the Montafia
(pi. 49, bottom) and the tipoy of Bolivia.
Featherwork. — Feather crowns were mainly of two types, according
to whether the frame was fixed vertically or horizontally like the brim
of a European hat, with the feathers inserted between its double edges
and projecting in the same plane (Roth, 1924, p. 429 et seq., pi. 137).
The foundation of the vertical type is a ring-shaped band with projecting
20 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
rim above and often below also ; this band is basketwork, typically twilled.
The feathers, fixed in rows on cotton twine, were woven into a cotton
band tied behind and supported in upright position by a cotton fillet
sewed to them in front. The Mojo, anciently noted for feather mosaics
that realistically represented animals and men, still make impressive
feather crowns (Nordenskiold, 1924 b, p. 205 f . ; 1922, pis. 27, 28).
There are likewise feather frontlets, collars, and cloaks for men (see
pi. 123) ; and at festivals the participants have small feathers or down
glued on their body (Roth, 1924, p. 425).
The Chiriguano came to supplant feather ornaments with frontlets of
Andean type displaying metal plaques.
Tattoo. — Complete tattooing is not widespread, but seems authenticated
for the Cariban Trio, the Yuracare, Shipaya, and the Mitndnrncn (p. 275 ;
also Spix and Martins, 1823-31, 3: 1312). The last had half ellipses
on the face, with many parallel lines descending over the chin to the chest,
which was ornamented with diamonds while the back also bore designs.
But forearms of Wapishana and TaiiUpdng women have been tattooed in
recent decades, and facial tattoo with conspicuous curvilinear patterns,
often of fishhook shape, was common. The pigment, sometimes mixed
with honey, was injected with a palm spine, the lancetlike fang of a certain
fish, or a fishbone. Among the Tupinamba and many other tribes both
sexes tattooed.
In the Roraima region tattoo is associated with puberty and has magical
significance.
Nordenskiold (1919 a, p. 120) has suggested that tattoo and genipa
paint are negatively correlated.
Painting. — Body and face paint (pis. 85, 86, 88) are widespread, the
most common pigments being red urucu derived from the seeds of Bixa
orellana and bluish-black genipa from the fruit of the Genipa americana;
both species are cultivated by the natives. These pigments occur beyond
the Tropical Forest culture, being popular among the Ge and traded into
the Chaco. Another widely diffused pigment is carayuru, obtained by
fermenting the leaves of Bignonia chica or boiling the water in which
they are soaked. Genipa designs remain indelible for 9 days and more,
which has led travelers to confound them with tattooing. Pigments may
be applied for prophylactic as well as esthetic purposes (Roth 1924, p.
88 et seq.).
In the Roraima country the designs vary greatly and, apart from
facial decoration, are executed by the women. Elaborate geometrical
patterns appear, but also realistic representations of birds and mammals,
as well as highly conventional forms of dubious significance (Koch-
Griinberg, 1923, 3: 40-45). The Guarani and Yuracare apply body
paint with a stamp (fig. 66, a, c, d).
Vol. 3] THE TROPICAL FORESTS— LOWIE 21
Miscellaneous ornaments. — An indefinite number of decorative de-
vices occur, some being shared with other regions. Besides finger rings
suspected of Negro or White origin and the feather decoration (p. 19),
there are labrets for the lower Hp (as many as a dozen among the
Mayoruna (pi. 51), whence their name, Barbudo) ; nose sticks; earplugs;
crowns and frontlets ; necklaces and chest ornaments of teeth, claws, or
seeds ; armlets of palm leaf, bark, beaded string, or cotton ; bracelets of
bark, feathers, or seeds; belts of basketwork, cotton bands, fruit shells,
or hair ; and leg ornaments. The calves of Carib women's legs are thrown
into relief by pairs of tight-fitting bands of woven cotton around the
knees and ankles respectively, as noted on Columbus' voyages. (See
pi. 38.)
Along the Rio Negro affluents, men generally wear quartz cylinders as
neck pendants. These cylinders, about 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 cm.) long
and an inch (2.5 cm.) in diameter, are worn from a cord of palm fiber
on which glossy, black seeds have been strung. (Roth, 1924, pp. 412-49;
Koch-Grtinberg, 1921, pp. 205 f.)
Ornaments of gold and silver were reported from the Amazon (p. 694)
and from tribes in contact with the Andean civilizations. So was arti-
ficial deformation of the head (p. 694).
TRANSPORTATION
Carrying devices. — For carrying minor utensils there are various
pouches, such as a small bark sack for coca and paint and a flat mat
satchel. On the Apaporis River the men carry their fire apparatus,
scarifying implement, and sundries in a rectangular bag knitted of palm-
fiber string (Koch-Griinberg, 1921, p. 384). Throughout most of the
area both sexes transport heavy loads in a basketry knapsack resting
against the back and supported by a plaited tumpline passing above
rather than across the forehead (pi. 121, top, right) ; the bearer relieves
the pressure by thrusting his arms through lateral loops, which may be
temporarily used to the exclusion of the head band in order to rest the
neck and head. The carrying net, so popular in the Chaco, is generally
lacking but appears among the Guarani in the extreme south, where, how-
ever, skin bags seem to have preceded it.
Infants are carried in a cotton baby sling made after the same pattern
as hammocks. The sling passes over the mother's right shoulder (pi. 26,
hft) and is pushed rearward by a woman when working in her planta-
tion so that the child is then supported on her back.
Boats. — Transportation by water is diagnostic of the culture at its core,
especially in contrast to the Ge of eastern Brazil (Handbook, vol. 2), but
many tribes living either between navigable rivers or on small streams at
the headwaters of the main rivers lacked any craft. Thus, the Shiriand,
Waica, Guaharibo, and Curicuriari River Macu, many tribes of the upper
22 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B,A.E. Bull. 143
Napo and Putumayo Rivers and elsewhere along the eastern slopes of
the Andes, the Mane, and the Nambicuara had no canoes. They crossed
watercourses on logs or by swimming; some of the tribes constructed
rafts. Many tribes which aboriginally lacked canoes, having kept away
from rivers to avoid the strong, hostile tribes living along them, adopted
canoes when White penetration brought peace to their country, and when
steel axes became available to facilitate canoe construction.
In general, Indians not only utilized natural waterways, but also skill-
fully dragged their craft over rapids. Further, where the several tribu-
taries of a river or the affluents of distinct systems approach one another,
the natives have established traditional land routes or portages to eke
out the connection by water. Finally, the Casiquiare River (pi. 5, top,
right and bottom) links the upper Rio Negro, hence the Amazon, with
the Orinoco River. Given the Indians' skill in coping with swift water
and other obstructions, one easily understands the wide diffusion of
many traits characteristic of the area not merely over the mainland, but
even to the Antilles. Amazing similarities between these islands and in-
terior districts (Santarem) have been emphasized by Nimuendaju, Nor-
denskiold, and Palmatary (1939).
The crafts used include simple rafts, often made of very light balsa
wood (pi. 71; fig. 95, a), dugouts (fig. 67), and bark canoes (figs. 56;
95, b; 123).
After felling and rough-hewing a tree for a dugout, the Indians orig-
inally applied fire at the top, gradually burning out the wood to an even
thickness, then filling the hollow with water, and at the same time keep-
ing up a gentle fire outside. In order further to widen the boat, they
might insert crossbeams (pi. 94, top). A tvpical specimen measured
33 ft. (10 m.) in length, 21 in. (53 cm.) in width, and 14 in. (35 cm.)
in depth. On the Guiana coast, dugouts had a plank added along the
side to form a gunwale. On long journeys a tent is added to protect
the goods. Such substances as the bruised sapwood of the Brazil-nut
tree (Bertholletia excelsa) serve for calking. Square sails of cotton,
palm-leaf matting, or laths split from the leaf stalk of Maiiritia were
customary.
Bark canoes (pis. 6, right; 27; 32) occur among some tribes of the
Amazon Basin and the Guianas, where they are generally restricted to
shallow water on the upper reaches of the streams. On the Berbice
River the Indians generally make a single piece of the purpleheart (Pel-
tngyne purpurea) bark into a canoe, and other trees are used elsewhere
for the same purpose. A "wood-skin" of this type, which may be as
long as 25 to 30 ft. (7.5 to 9.1 m.), holds 3 men with their baggage.
Easily capsized, this craft has compensatory advantages — floating where
Vol. 3] THE TROPICAL FORESTS— LOWIE 23
an ordinary dugout could not pass, and being easily carried on the head
over a portage.
In very shallow water the Indians pole their boats; otherwise they
propel them with paddles having leaf-shaped or circular blades and usually
a crescentic handle.
MANUFACTURES
Bark cloth. — One center for bark cloth lies in northwestern Bolivia
(Nordenskiold, 1924 b, p. 208 et seq., maps 28 and 30) ; another among
the Tucanoans, Zaparoans, Jivaro, and Arawak of the upper Amazon.
The industry characterizes none of the three major stocks of our area,
but rather such marginal groups as the Witoto (pi. 83), Tucano, Campa,
Yuracare, and Chacoho. The inner layer of the Ficus bark usually pro-
vides the material, which is beaten out with a grooved mallet. (See pi.
94, bottom; p. 779.) Among the Yuracare this craft is vital, producing
men's and women's shirts, which are stamped with painted designs ; baby
slings ; pouches ; and mosquito nets. Bast shirts are also typical of mas-
culine dress among the Chacoho (Nordenskiold, 1922, pp. 60, 94, 95).
The Tucano use bark cloth for mummers' masks and costumes and for
images (pi. 64).
Basketry. — The Shiriana, Waica, Caraja, and Guaharibo make only
twined baskets, perhaps a survival of the earliest technique. (For twining
technique, see pi. 95, bottom, right.) Twilling (pi. 95, bottom, left) and
latticework (fig. 2) are very widespread. For Guiana are recorded such
Figure 2. — Tropical Forest basketwork of lattice type, a, Common hexagonal weave
of Amazon Basin; b, special lattice weave of Mate Grosso. (After Nordenskiold,
1924 b, map 27.)
additional techniques as checker, wrapping, and imbrication. (Koch-
Grunberg, 1921, pp. 340-342; 1923, 3: 80-85; Roth, 1924, pp. 137-143,
281-380; Gillin, 1936, p. 51 et seq.) Vines, palms, and other tropical
species furnish ideal materials for this industry. The nibi vine (Carlu-
dovica trigona) is split in half, then the convex outer surface is split
24 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
off from each piece, yielding a flat, ribbonlike, flexible, and tough strip,
which is scraped with a knife.
Basketry articles (pi. 22) include mats, satchels, trays, creels, oblong
basketry boxes with lids, two-piece telescoping containers, carrying
baskets (pi. 6, left, bottom) manioc presses, and fans. Some utensils
are in openwork, others closely woven, but in either case they can be
waterproofed with broad leaves or pitch, the latter attested for Ama-
zonian tribes by Acuna (1641).
It is noteworthy that basketry is a masculine industry.
The remarkable esthetic effects attained in basketry are treated under
Art (p. 39).
Weaving and cordage. — Since major garments are as a rule lacking,
loom work includes mainly hammocks, baby slings, anklets, fillets, waist
bands, and the like. (See Roth, 1924, pp. 92-118, 381-411.) Complete
clothing — the tipoy, cushma, and, in some tribes, the poncho — is woven
only near the Andes. In the eastern part of our area, cotton predominates,
though not to the exclusion of other materials. It is grown somewhat
less on the upper Amazon and its tributaries ; in the Rio Negro region,
it is either lacking or little cultivated, and a term for the species is absent
from the Arawakan dialects there (Nimuendaju, personal communica-
tion). Even among tribes which cultivate cotton, there is sometimes a
preference for wild fibers, which often better withstand heat and moisture.
Favorite materials for thread are the fibers of burity palm (Mauritia
flexuosa), from which a very fine cloth called cachibanco is made ; jauary
palm (Astrocaryum jauary) ; curaua (Bromeliaceae) ; embira (Coura-
tari sp.) ; tucum (the fiber of several palms called tucuma) ; Cecropia;
and other wild species. On the upper Tiquie River, men make balls of
tough cordage and trade them to alien tribes against curare.
True loom weaving has a high, though incomplete, correlation with
cotton. Probably the distinctive type, called "cincture," or vertical loom
(M. Schmidt, 1914, 4: 214), is one consisting of two uprights perforated
top and bottom to permit the insertion of cross beams around which the
parallel warp threads are looped, the anterior and posterior ones being
separated by a movable rod, while a thinner stick divides the even and
odd threads (during the process of manufacture). When the fabric
is complete, it forms a ring. (Fig. 3; pi. 115, top; also Nordenskiold,
1919 a, p. 204 et seq. ; 1920, p. 174 et seq.). This loom is found in the
Guianas, west to the Rio Negro, and south to the Yuracare of Bolivia.
As it is common to several linguistic families, including the Cariban,
Max Schmidt's characterization of it as "Arazvak" seems premature.
Bordering the Andes, many tribes use a horizontal loom, the "belt loom"
being most common. One end of the loom is attached to a tree or house
post, the other to the weaver's belt.
Vol. 3]
THE TROPICAL FORESTS— LOWIE
25
Lacking a loom, tribes such as the Tucanoans, Witotoans, and most
of the Tupl including the Tupinamba, finger weave, producing a twined
fabric. Netting is restricted to the southern tribes. On the upper Xingu,
netted hammocks and carrying bags as well as fish nets occur along with
a twined and a true weave.
Figure 3. — Loom for manufacture of thick hammocks. Upper Rio Negro country,
Colombia. (After Koch-Grunberg, 1906 a.)
Pottery. — Pottery is general, but by no means universally manufac-
tured, earthenware being widely exported from centers of production.
The Eastern Nambicuara completely lack the industry, and their congeners
make very coarse ware. To some extent the industry naturally depends
on the availability of good clay. The view that the Arawakans, unless
checked by lack of such material, are uniformly the donors remains an
improbable hypothesis (Linne, 1925, pp. 162-169). In eastern Peru, for
example, Arawakan ware is definitely inferior to Pcmoan or Tupian
(pp. 577-578) , and there is at present no basis for assigning the advanced
Marajo and Santarem ceramics to the Arawakans. It is only in a few
centers, such as the upper Rio Xingii country, that the Arawak have a
monopoly of pottery making; and if the Arawak introduced elaborate
wares to eastern Bolivia, there is no proof that they did so elsewhere.
As a rule, women make earthenware, but among the Yecuana and
Guinau, the industry is wholly masculine (Koch-Griinberg, 1923 a, 3 :
347).
26 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. BuU. 143
For tempering, the use of sand, shell, and pounded sherds is rare
within the area. Very distinctive, on the other hand, is the addition of
the ashes from siliceous bark (Amazon Basin, Orinoco, and Guiana),
reasonably assumed to have supplanted the earlier, less efifective use of
sand. The proportion of bark and clay varies, presumably with the
consistency of the clay, which on the banks of the Amazon would be
unserviceable without a siliceous admixture. The Amazon and its afifluents
form the center for the addition of burnt and crushed sponges found on
the roots of riparian trees, the spicules greatly strengthening the material,
as proved by Santarem ware (Linne, 1925, pp. 29-59).
Coiling (pi. 62, bottom, left), the most widespread technique, is il-
lustrated by the Rio Negro tribes. A vessel is coiled, smoothed with a
bit of gourd, and finally polished with a pebble, which is often highly
prized (Koch-Griinberg, 1921, p. 344). The potter next dries her vessel
for several days indoors and then for an equal period in the sun. For
firing, she inverts the pot in a shallow pit, where it rests on a few stones,
surrounds it with light wood topped with dry bark, and exposes it to
a strongly concentrated fire.
Slip seems restricted to the Marajo-Santarem region and the Montafia.
Varnish, made of rosin, e. g., from Vismia guianensis, or a copal, e. g.,
from the courbaril tree {Hynienaea courbaril), is applied in the Amazon
Basin, and especially by the modern Carih in Guiana. Thus, the Barama
Carib use a certain juice, mildly re-heating the vessel so that the gum
melts and seeps into the pores. This also creates a glazed appearance,
which vanishes with use. The Igana Arawak sprinkle powdered rosin
or the milk of a tree over the painted designs, which thus assume a
glossy varnish on firing. (Pp. 155-159; also Linne, 1925, pp. 141-154;
Koch-Grunberg, 1921 p. 345; Roth, 1924, p. 133.)
Painted pottery is best developed on the Guiana littoral, on Marajo
Island, on the Tapajoz River, in the upper Rio Negro region, and in
the Montafia and Yungas (pis. 15-18, 52; figs. 16, 17, 36, 60, 73-75, 111,
112). The Chiriguano de luxe ware is outstanding for its painted decora-
tion of Andean type, whereas utensils merely bear fingerprint decora-
tion. Negative painting on vessels from Rebordello, on the lower Amazon,
is noteworthy (Linne, 1925, p. 136). Painted vessels naturally are re-
served for special use — storage, chicha containers, vessels for serving
guests, and the like. Utility ware is generally plain and is decorated,
if at all, with incisions and fingernail impressions. Modeled ware is
found mainly on the lower Amazon, e. g., Marajo (pp. 155-159), where
its high development surpasses what might be expected of the historic
tribes. It also occurs on the Parana River (pi. 9).
The craftsmanship in our area is indicated by the variety of forms,
especially of nonutilitarian types. Cooking pots and water containers
are widespread. Roasting pans, with elevated margin, and plates are
Vol. 3] THE TROPICAL FORESTS— LOWIE 27
well-developed in the northwest Amazon region. Vessels of unusual size
are seen in chicha jars; these range from 3 to 4 feet (1 to 1.3 m.) in
diameter and height in the Montana, to 3 feet (1 m.) high and 7 to 10 feet
(2 to 3 m.) in diameter on the Rio Negro, where manioc-pulp bowls
even attain a diameter of 10 to 14 feet (3 to 4 m.). The modern Palicur,
though no longer capable of the fine urns of their ancestors, still make
roasting pans for manioc flour, large drinking vessels, either conical-
bottomed or with annular stand, double drinking vessels with a connect-
ing bar, and a variety of clay toys representing turtles and other species
(Nimuendaju, 1926, pp. 41-47). The coast of Guiana and northern
Brazil generally abounds in oddly shaped effigy vessels ana in grotesque
appendages of vessels (Roth, 1924, pp. 134—136).
Amazing similarities in detail prove connections between Antillean and
Santarem pottery (Nimuendaju reported in Nordenskiold, 1930 a).
Gourds. — Calabashes (Crescentia) and gourds (Lagenaria) are of
general importance as dippers, drinking cups, and storage vessels. In
the Guapore River and upper Xingu region, where pottery is crude,
calabashes abound and are decorated either with incised or pyrographic
designs. The Barama Carib have hemispherical cups and containers
closed except for perforations of the neck or shoulder. The fruit is
picked when completely ripe, the shell cut according to the intended
purpose, and the pap removed, sometimes after loosening it by boiling the
whole gourd. The calabash is then dried indoors or in the sun until
tough and hard. The gourd may be coated with the juice applied to
pottery but lacks decoration. As a precaution against the entrance of
insects, one gourd is inverted over the mouth of another or the opening
is plugged with clean grass (Gillin, 1936, p. 49). Other Guiana Indians,
as well as Amazon and Rio Negro tribes, sometimes embellish gourds
in painting or incised lines. The halved calabash of the Rio Negro
tribes is polished brown on the outside, varnished black within, and some-
times bears incised decoration on the rim or the entire outer surface
(Koch-Griinberg, 1921, p. 347; Roth, 1924, pp. 301-03). Pokerwork,
though ascribed to the Kepikiriwat, Tariana, Macushi, and Wapishana,
seems rare (Nordenskiold, 1919 a, p. 225 f.). Chiriguano gourds are
artistically embellished with painted, incised, or pyrographic designs.
Miscellaneous. — Fire making is generally by drilling (pi. 117, top;
fig. 54). Various materials serve as shaft and hearth; and the Pomeroon
Arawak have a compound shaft, the point from the fruit pedicel of a
palm being too short so that it has to be tied to a longer stick. Moss,
the debris from ant collections, cotton, etc., serve as tinder. To save
eflfort the Indians keep fires burning, even carrying smoldering timber
on an earthen hearth during boat trips. The Witoto facts are dubious,
one authority denying to them any fire apparatus, another crediting them
28 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
with a percussion technique, still another with drilling. Fires are activated
with woven (pi. 47, top) or feather fans (fig. 78, a).
For illumination the Guiana tribes have candles of rubber or cotton
thread drawn through melted beeswax, or substitute gum and comparable
materials (Roth, 1924, pp. 69-72).
Rubber is probably derived from Sapium and Hevea species. Apart
from use in ball games, it serves for the manufacture of rings and enema
syringes. The Cayenne Indians boil the latex, then cover clay molds
with several coatings of the boiled rubber, incise designs on it, dry it
carefully over a fire, blacken it in the smoke, and finally break the molds
(Roth, 1924, pp. 83-85; Nordenskiold, 1930 c, pp. 184-195).
The Guiana Indians procure a glue from the gum of Moronobea
coccinea, cutting into the trunk to make a yellowish gum exude, which
is mixed with beeswax and powdered charcoal. It is either allowed to
run as a semiliquid into a hollow bamboo or to harden at the bottom of
a pot. This material serves to fasten arrow points, wax threads, and
fishing lines, calking, etc. The whitish resin of Mimusops globosa also
helps attach dififerent parts of an arrow and the stones of cassava graters.
Feathers are glued to the body with various gums and balsams, which
are also remedies for sores and other ills.
In much of the area the lack or rarity of stone leads to the use of
substitutes. Arrowheads are of wood, bone, and sting-ray spurs, the
occasionally reported stone points being highly suspect. In Guiana,
knives are sometimes of quartz and perhaps other stones, but there and
elsewhere, they are typically of bamboo, fish teeth, etc. Scrapers are
of snail shell, the lower jaw of an agouti, slivers of rock removed in
celt-manufacture, etc. The preparation of the highly prized quartz
cylinders worn by men in the western part of our area is very exacting.
The material is obtained from the depths of the forest along the Tiquie
River ; percussion with another quartz roughly shapes the rock, which is
then ground on sandstone and polished with fine sand or pumice im-
ported from the Amazon via the Yapura River. Months are required
for this labor and for the ensuing perforation. The Indian, holding the
cylinder with his feet, twirls a pointed palmwood drill on the quartz,
adding fine white sand, but no water. At the commencement of the
perforating process, the smooth, round quartz is tipped with a lump of
pitch until the pit is deep enough to prevent slipping out. Several shafts
are worn out during the process, having to be constantly resharpened
(Koch-Griinberg, 1921, pp. 205 f.).
The most important stone tools, however, are the celt and the grooved
ax (pis. 70, top; 118, e; fig. 45). They are made either by grinding
down fragments broken from rocks or by grinding down water-worn
pebbles of suitable contour. In the Apaporis River country, the Indians
obtain diabase blades ground by nature so as to be almost ready
Vol. 3] THE TROPICAL FORESTS— LOWIE 29
for use and requiring only the slightest supplementary grinding (Koch-
Griinberg, 1921, p. 374). Roth distinguishes elongate, curved celts with
a cutting edge at each extremity; small straight-edged blades with butt
trimmed for hafting ; larger specimens with truncate butts and rounded
cutting edges ; and narrow flattened celts with markedly pointed butts.
The grooved axes have a notch above and below, ranging widely as to
width; the butt may be either very convex or rather squat and square.
The hafting technique is far from clear. In the rare cases amenable
to direct observation the celt is fitted into an opening cut to correspond
to its base and secured with resin. Roth (1924, pp. 72-79) surmises
that the blades are often held in the hand; that the grooves of the axes
may be intended merely for the twine employed ; and that the blunter ax
may conceivably be fastened by a withy bent double and fixed with gum
and twine.
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION
Mode of settlement, matrimonial arrangements, and government are
all closely interrelated and separable only for purposes of exposition.
Settlement. — In many of the tribes the settlement consists of one or a
few communal houses (maloca). Such arrangements imply some measure
of communism, e. g., the joint use of a fireplace for beer manufacture
or of a large trough for grinding maize. The population bears no constant
ratio to the number of houses: a two-hut hamlet on the Aiari River
harbored some 40 persons, whereas other single maloca settlements on
this river had a numerical strength ranging from 10 to 100. If neces-
sary, each could accommodate twice or even four times as many (Koch-
Griinberg, 1921, pp. 42, 45). A Mangeroma (Jurua-Purus) house was
found to have 258 residents ; some Tenetehara and Tupiitamba dwellings
had nearly 1,000 persons.
In several districts (e. g., Tapirape, Caraja, Mundurucu, Chacobo)
a men's club house is set off from the family dwellings.
Matrimonial residence. — In the western part of the area, patrilocal
residence predominates along with local exogamy. Koch-Griinberg ( 1921,
pp. 114 f., 211, 309) would have us believe that Tucanoans and neighbor-
ing Arawakan invariably take wives from other tribes, a Siusi girl marry-
ing a Huhuteni or Kaus suitor, a Bara girl a Tuyuca man. It seems
more probable that custom merely prescribes taking a bride from another
settlement, irrespective of its linguistic affinity. Goldman (p. 780) found
the Tucanoan Cubeo to acquire wives outside the village, members of
which formed an exogamous, patrilineal sib. Certainly Preuss's Witoto
"stamme" (1921, 1:11, 153 et seq.) suggest localized clans (Steward's
"patrilineal bands," Giflford's "lineages") rather than "tribes" in ordinary
parlance.
30 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
In the Guianas, matrilocal residence prevails, coupled with bride-service.
However, there are notable exceptions and qualifications. The Palicur
have no fixed rule and regard an independent household as ideal (Nim-
uendaju, 1926, p. 82). The Aparai, in contrast to fellow Caribans, are
definitely patrilocal (Kirchhoff, 1931, p. 119). Frequently, the matrilocal
rule is reversed for the chief and his eldest son (ibid., pp. 125, 190), as
also holds for the Bacdiri (M. Schmidt, 1905, p. 437). Avuncular mar-
riage for girls (see below) would leave both spouses in their natal village.
Matrilocalism may be temporary (Macurap of the Branco River),
or permanent. It cannot be considered a specifically Arawakan trait.
Though the Locono exhibit it, it is lacking among the Wapishana. Of
non- Arawakans, the isolated Warrau, the Cariban Tamanak, Macushi,
Taulipdng, Rucuyen, Galibi, Kallinago, and the Tupian Siriono, Guayaki,
and Chiriguano are temporarily or permanently matrilocal.
Marriage rules. — Premarital license may be consistent with strict
feminine chastity in wedlock (Roth, 1924, p. 560; Nimuendajii,
1926, p. 81).
Monogamy is reported for the Palicur as early as 1729. Elsewhere
polygyny is often either a chief's prerogative (Caiari River) or is actually
practiced mostly by chiefs and shamans, notwithstanding permissive
polygyny for others (Roth, 1924, p. 685 et seq.). Polygyny is most
commonly sororal (Trumai). Simultaneous marriage with a woman
and her daughter by another husband crops up sporadically, being ortho-
dox among Kuliseu River tribes, the Rucuyen, and sundry Caribans.
Bride-service was frequent. Its obligations might be temporary, as
among the Tenetehara (p. 143) or continue indefinitely, as among the
Tupinamba, who, however, mitigated the husband's lot if he gave his
daughter in marriage to her mother's brother (p. 112). In northwestern
Brazil the groom offers presents to his parents-in-law, but the bride
brings a dowry.
Preferential kin and affinial unions are varied and widespread. The
Cubeo prefer cross-cousin marriage together with brother-sister exchange,
so that the symmetrical form of the custom is indicated. Cross-cousin
marriage is also orthodox among the Nambicuara, whose nomenclature
reflects the practice ; the Cashinawa; the Wapishana; and various Caribans
of whom the Aparai favor the patrilateral, others the symmetrical type.
The occurrence of avuncular marriage, sororal polygyny, and step-
daughter marriage have been noted.
Position of women. — The discordant evidence presumably reflects
local differences: some sources describe women as their husbands'
slaves, others as their companions, and among the Palicur they set the
tone. (Koch-Griinberg, 1921, pp. 353 f.; Roth, 1924, pp. 683 f . ; Nim-
uendajii, 1926, pp. 78 ff.) Since the Palicur are patrilineal, the status
Vol. 3] THE TROPICAL FORESTS— LOWIE - 31
of women is obviously not a simple function of the rule of descent. Nor
is it clearly correlated with particular linguistic families.
Kinship usages. — Mother-in-law avoidance occurs among the Arawak,
Carib, and Warrau of Guiana: a man must not remain in his mother-
in-law's dwelling, nor talk with her, nor even look at her (Roth, 1924,
p. 685; 1915, p. 344; Kirchhoff, 1931, p. 150). In the same region a
man and his wife's father may converse on ordinary topics, but the wife
serves as go-between in the conveyance of instructions (Roth, 1915,
p. 200). Among the Tupinamba a newly wed man and his father-in-
law display mutual bashfulness (Kirchhoff, 1931, p. 183).
Among the Shipaya a lifelong bond of solidarity is sometimes created
between two individuals on the occasion of a ceremony.
Unilateral and bilateral units. — Instead of unilateral types of unit
many tribes have territorial groups embracing both blood-kinsfolk and
outsiders — especially in-laws — who have come to join them. This type
of unit is Kirchhoff's "extended family" (Grossfamilie).
However, unilateral systems are not rare, but not one of the three
major stocks presents a uniform social organization. It is true that the
Caribans present no authenticated case of exogamy with matrilineal
descent, which in some tribes is indeed precluded by avuncular marriage
(Tamanac and Macushi) ; most of them seem to have loose extended
families, but patrilineal reckoning may occur in some cases. Of the
Arazvakans, the Locono and the Goajiro (Handbook, vol. 4) have each
a large number of matrilineal clans, which probably holds for the Antillean
congeners. On the other hand, the western Arawakans lack the trait,
and even in the east the Palicur have seven patrilineal clans (Nimuendaju,
1926, pp. 22 et seq., 86, 132) ranged in moieties. Of the Tupians, on
the Rio Branco, the Ariia have matrilineal, the Makurap patrilineal
descent, the latter also holding for the Witoto and the Mimdnrucu, which
latter have exogamic moieties divided into clans. The Tupinamba may
conceivably have had a patrilineal organization, but certainly not matri-
lineal clans in view of the orthodoxy of avuncular marriage.
Turning to other stocks, the Jabuti (Rio Branco), the Tucanoans
(Cubeo), and the Tucunu are patrilineal.
Besides the Palicur and Mundurucu, the Kepikiriwat (Gi-Parana
River) also have moieties, but apparently only for ceremonial ball games.
Only the Mundurucu moieties are definitely known to be exogamous
(p. 277) ; on the other hand, the feature belongs to the three Cubeo
phratries. The nameless Cubeo phratries own land and unite periodically
for a men's initiation ceremony and for the recital of origin myths (pp. 780-
781). The Palicur moieties have separate cemeteries and are named
"lower" and "upper," respectively.
At least partly totemic clan names appear in the Cubeo, Palicur, and
Tucuna schemes. Cubeo and Tucuna clans own each a set of personal names.
32 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
How far we can speak of totemism apart from the above mentioned
cases of totemic names, is not certain. One Palicur clan traces its descent
from a sloth, others from a bird, wild Bromelias, and the earth, re-
spectively ; but some of the designations are untranslatable. Among
the Cuheo, again, it was not the totemic clan eponyms that were once
taboo, but the eponyms associated with the sets of personal names owned
by clans.
Political organization. — Commonly each settlement is autonomous,
so that the headman merely controls fellow-residents, but some tribes
are said to have paramount chiefs (Yuruna) . In the matrilocal but clan-
less tribes, a headman might exert much influence by controlling as de-
pendents his daughters' husbands. Indeed, in the Guayaki hordes, the
father of several daughters who have attracted suitors into fixed matri-
local residence becomes ipso facto the headman. As a rule, however,
greater authority belongs to chiefs in unilaterally organized societies.
A Palicur chief, e. g., welcomes strangers, organizes communal enterprises,
and smooths over internal difficulties. But though a chief represents his
people, arranges festivities, and leads economic undertakings, he owes
hospitality to his tribesmen and probably is never despotic by virtue of
his office.
Succession follows distinct patterns. In the Rio Negro region (Siusi)
a headman is followed first by his several brothers and only after their
death by a son. The Palicur disregard heredity, the incumbent selecting
as deputy and successor the ablest and most popular tribesman. Elsewhere
( Yuruna) the oldest son normally succeeds his father ; failing male off-
spring, a Witoto chief may choose as his successor a son-in-law, thus
contravening the normal patrilocal rule.
Where sources speak of accession by ordeals (Roth, 1924, pp. 568-573),
a purely titular distinction seems invloved : the successful candidate
does not supersede the chief in ofifice, but gains in status. The tests in
part coincide with those imposed at puberty.
In some tribes (e. g., Qui jo, Nambicuara) a chief is usually a shaman.
As for differences in rank, the status of sons-in-law was often inferior
in matrilocal societies, but hardly enough so to warrant speaking of an
inferior caste, though in some tribes the same term designates a serf and
a son-in-law (e. g., Guiana Carib, p. 849). Rather different is the case
of whole tribes dominated by others. Thus, the originally nomadic Macii
are well enough treated by economically superior neighbors, but some-
what as might be pet animals. The Tucano send Macii slaves to get game,
fish, or wild fruits and assign menial tasks to them. A master will dole
out kashiri or an occasional cigar to his drudge, but bars him from
dances ; and no Macti would intrude into a conversation unasked. Dif-
ferent again is the Chiriguano polity. This offshoot of the Gnarani
conquered the economically advanced Chcme, thus creating an upper class
Vol. 3] THE TROPICAL FORESTS— LOWIE 33
that in various districts lords it over from 5 to over 10 times their number
of serfs (p. 467). A stratification is suggested for the ancient Manasi
of Bolivia : hereditary chiefs, priests, shamans, "captains," and com-
moners (p. 389).
Property and inheritance. — Individual property rights are recog-
nized, even children being credited with them (M. Schmidt, 1905, p. 438;
Roth, 1924, pp. 632, 701). But this does not bar communal ownership
of certain goods, such as weirs and general sharing in the yield (e. g.,
p. 000; Koch-Griinberg, 1921, p. 257). In Guiana land is cleared by
communal labor (Kirchhoff, 1931, pp. 141, 157). Since settlements shift
with exhaustion of the soil, inheritance of land is immaterial, but fishing
rights are sib-owned among the Cubeo (p. 781) and on the upper Xingu
(p. 324). As for other property, most tribes burn or bury a deceased
person's chattels. A Triimai nephew inherits certain songs from his
mother's brother. Among the Siusi the son is the sole heir ; failing issue,
the dead man's brother or other kinsman takes his place.
Trade. — Local specialization and the mobility of expert boatmen
favored wholesale trading notwithstanding the lack of fixed mediums of
exchange. Acawai peddlers make long journeys in Venezuela, Brazil,
and Guiana. Even such necessities as cassava graters and blowguns are
often manufactured in particular distributing centers. Credit is an
established concept, payment being often deferred for months.
That Arawakans have created all useful goods is unproved. The iso-
lated Otomac are famous for their pottery; the Cariban Arecuna spread
cotton and blowguns ; the Warrau, their boats ; the Pehans, Macushi, and
Tucnna, blowgun poison. Intertribal trade was greatly developed on the
upper Xingu River, with formalized procedure (pp. 338-339). The
extent of commerce is indicated by the presence of Andean objects of gold,
silver, and copper as far east as the upper Paraguay River.
WARFARE
Weapons. — Bows and arrows have already been described under
Hunting (p. 12). Some of the fighting arrows are poisoned. Roth
rightly wonders at the infrequent use of curare in warfare (blowguns
with their curare-poisoned darts were never used), but the Yahuna are
said to smear it on palm spines attached to their wrists and elbows in
preparation for a hand-to-hand encounter (Koch-Grunberg, 1921, p. 362).
Spears are common in western rather than in eastern Guiana ; they are
long, pointed, and firehardened staves of wood, but there is some evi-
dence of prehistoric stone spearheads. In Yapura and Apaporis River
country there are poisoned lances, which are wanting in the Caiari region ;
they serve both in war and the chase. These weapons are always united
in sheaves of seven ; each poisoned tip, inserted in an incision of the
shaft and wrapped with bast, is stuck into a separate compartment of a
34 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
common case for the septet. The arrangement resembles that for poisoned
arrows on the Aiari River (Koch-Griinberg, 1921, pp. 64, 88, 371 f., 396).
Clubs with wrist-loops are common, especially the flat, paddle- or
swordlike type (macana, fig. 78, e-h). These are large, at times requir-
ing the use of both hands to wield them. A block type, distributed at
least from Cayenne to the Orinoco, is made of the hardest, heaviest
woods worked into sharp-cornered square ends; sometimes a celt is
cemented into a lateral groove (fig. 27). A curious dagger-club tapers
to a sharp point at one end, to a blunt one at the other, with the grip
in between; it is driven through the ear into a fallen enemy's brain.
Other clubs resemble a spatula. The clubs are often elaborately orna-
mented with basketwork wrapping and engraved designs.
Shields vary greatly in make and shape, but most commonly are circular,
of tapir hide. Wickerwork equivalents, occasionally covered with tapir
hide, also occur in the Montana, the Uaupes-Caqueta (pi. 103, center), and
the Mojos-Chiquitos area, and they persist as dance regalia on the Rio
Negro, For the Cayenne Indians, an early recorder describes and figures
an oblong shield of very light wood, painted with various designs.
Psychology of Warfare. — Some tribes, such as the Yagua (p. 735)
are reckoned as peaceable, others — notably the Carib and Tupi — as militar-
istic. The historic conflict of Cariban and Arawakan groups in the Antilles
is also exemplified by the hereditary enmity of Galibi and Palicur; and
the Arawakaiis of I(jana region are traditional enemies of the Cubeo, but
it would be a grave error to suppose that alignment universally followed
linguistic lines. To the contrary, warfare was more common within
families, e. g., between Jivaro villages, between the Panoan Conibo and
Cashibo, or between Nahukwa groups.
Revenge seems to have been the foremost motive for warfare, but the
Parintintin fought mainly for sport and the Tupinamba to gain prestige
and to acquire victims to be eaten. The craving for glory also figured
largely, as indicated by the use of trophies, e. g., among the Jivaro
(p. 624) and, on the Orinoco River, by the recital of coups. The Paressi
are unique in their wars of conquest. Another motive was the capture
of individual enemies, a factor greatly intensified by European instigation.
Organization and tactics. — The decision to make war usually takes
place at a council in combination with a drinking-bout. The Suriname
Carib then paint themselves, dance special dances to arouse the jaguar
spirit, and undergo magical rites to ensure success. Some tribes summon
their fellows by signal drums or by blowing conchs. Several groups are
credited with having specially appointed commanders-in-chief and with
carrying provisions along. Among the Mundurucu, women accompany
and assist their warrior husbands.
Vol. 3] THE TROPICAL FORESTS— LOWIE 35
Open warfare is far less common than nocturnal and matutinal sur-
prise attacks. In attacking a palisaded village, the aggressors often shoot
arrows tipped with lighted cotton to set fire to the thatched roofs. Wide-
spread protective measures include the barring of avenues of approach
with sharp hardwood stakes and coltrops, both often poisoned, and the
stakes frequently set in the bottom of a concealed trench. The use of
automatically-released blowguns hidden by the trail (Jurua-Purus) and
of irritating fumes from burning peppers is more restricted.
Treatment of prisoners. — Slavery has already been mentioned. Cap-
tive women were usually taken in marriage and children reared as ordinary
tribal members, but the cannibalistic Tupinamha, though taking captives,
always killed and ate them sooner or later.
Trophies. — Nearly all warring tribes take human trophies of some kind,
most frequently heads, though the Parintintin do not disdain arms and
legs. The most famous trophies are the Jivaro shrunken heads (pi. 63
and p. 625). In some cases, scalps alone are sought, e. g., in Suriname,
where the women wear them as ornaments, the Yecuand using the hair
for belts. The Yuruna and various Montana tribes prefer the skull. A
common practice is to make flutes of the victim's long bones and necklaces
of his teeth.
The Mundnrucu cut an enemy's head off with a cane knife, remove
the brains, eyes, tongue, and muscles, then dry the skull, wash it with
water, saturate it with urucu oil, and expose it to the sun. When hard,
it receives an artificial brain of dyed cotton, eyes of pitch, teeth, and
a feather hood for decoration (fig, 28; pi. 23, lejt). Henceforth, the
victor regularly carries it with him by a rope. ( Spix and Martins, 1823-
31, 3:1314).
Cannibalism. — Although our word "cannibal" is derived from a desig-
nation of the Carih, many Arawakan and Tucanoan tribes also practiced
anthropophagy. Several tribes in Guiana closely resembled the Tupi-
namha in their relevant procedure ; they hospitably entertained a prisoner
for some time, beginning to taunt him as the fatal hour of his execution
approached, then tortured him, and finally crushed his skull with a sword-
club. This was followed by the cooking and eating of his flesh, some
of the bones being made into flutes. (See figs. 12-14.) Shipaya canni-
balism is linked with the cult of Kumapari.
(For the whole section, see Roth, 1924, pp. 144-173, 578-601.) Endo-
cannibalism is described under Death (p. 38) .
LIFE CYCLE
Birth. — Isolation of the woman during childbirth is customary. Among
the Siusi, e. g., the woman in labor remains in her hammock within the
house, assisted by the female inmates, while the men all depart. The
navel string and afterbirth are buried on the spot (Koch-Griinberg, 1921,
36 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
p. 116). For 5 days the mother remains secluded in her division of the
dwelling, where her husband keeps her company ; during this period
neither parent may work, wash himself, or eat anything but flat manioc
cakes and peppers lest the infant take harm. The seclusion is ended by
the father's recital of the names of fish and game animals henceforth
permitted to the parents, followed by a joint bath by them and the infant.
On that day the father's father bestows a name on the child, usually
drawing upon the animal kingdom. The Cuheo (p. 787) conform to the
Siusi rule in this respect, but widely depart from it in other details. Here
the expectant mother — not her husband — abstains from the flesh of all
quadrupeds for a month before the birth. The delivery may occur in
the house or in a special hut or in the woods, but with the assistance of
all women. The husband's mother cuts the navel cord with razor grass
and immediately buries it with the afterbirth. Of twins of different
sex the female, and otherwise the junior infant, is invariably killed.
Several hours after a birth the shaman arrives for a conjuring ceremony.
Confinement in the young couple's part of the house lasts for 5 days,
then all the furniture is moved out of the house prior to the newborn
child's first bath, and on the following day a kinsman of the father brings
cooked fish, thereby terminating the fast. Eight days after the delivery
a great drinking spree is held, to which the parents invite all their kin,
and it is then that a name is conferred (Koch-Grunberg, 1921, pp. 310 f.).
In these instances the couvade, which has a very wide distribution,
is at best adumbrated. In Guiana the couvade appears in classical form,
i. e., natal and prenatal prescriptions and restrictions on the father equal
or surpass the mother's, the rationale usually being the infant's welfare.
A Palicur father is supposed to be everywhere accompanied by the child's
spirit, for whom he must carry a miniature bow and arrow lest he himself
fail in the hunt ; and if he is obliged to enter the woods at night he must
carry a sling over his left shoulder for the infant's spirit. Were the man
to make incisions in certain trees, the tree-spirit would cause the child's
abdomen to grow large like the tree's (Nimuendaju, 1926, p. ^Z). The
Suriname Carih forbade the father to hunt or undertake any heavy work ;
everywhere he had to avoid thorny places on the road, and if he crossed
a river by a tree trunk, he would set up a sort of miniature bridge for
the child's spirit (Roth, 1924, pp. 695 f.). The Galihi subjected the
father to the same flogging and scarification tests characteristic at puberty,
the idea being to transfer to the child the valor shown. The Macushi
prohibit both parents to scratch themselves with their fingernails, instead
of which they employ the midrib of the kokerite palm (Roth, 1915,
pp. 320-324).
There seems to be no support for Max Schmidt's view (1917, pp. 61-64)
that the couvade was a potent mechanism for creating an economically
subordinate social class. The custom is not confined to matrilocal peoples,
Vol. 3] THE TROPICAL FORESTS— LOWIB 37
as he assumes, but has a wide distribution irrespective of the rule of resi-
dence ; and its implications are very clearly of the magico-religious order.
Puberty. — Some sort of puberty ordeal is widespread, being obligatory
for both sexes before marriage especially in the Guianas, as among the
Carib and Warrau. The principal tests are fasting, exposure to ant
bites, scarification, and flagellation. A Pomeroon Arawak girl must
abstain from meat at her first menses and eat very little fish with small
manioc cakes ; her Warrau sister neither eats, speaks, nor laughs for 2
or 3 days. Maue, Apinaye, and Arapium boys were exposed to ants, as
was customary among various Guiana tribes (see pi. 118, d), which latter
commonly inflicted severe gashes on adolescents of both sexes. Boys
or girls, or both, were flogged among the Macushi, the Marauhd, and
Araycu (west of Ega), and tribes of the lower Iqa. River. Very common
is the suspension of a girl in a hammock raised to the highest part of
the hut so as to expose her to the smoke. This custom, linked with fast-
ing and other taboos, seems to be in part of upper Amazonia the equivalent
of the boys' flogging. The Taulipdng combine all the austerities de-
scribed : A youth is whipped and gashed, the incisions being smeared
with magical substances, and exposed to ants, besides being obliged to
forego the meat of game and flesh of large birds and big fish for a
whole year. This trial is invariably collective, and none of the candidates
may utter a cry of pain lest the ceremony be nullified for all celebrants.
However, the primary object of the performance is, according to Koch-
Grunberg, not a mere test of fortitude, but a magical enhancement of
the youths' skill in hunting and fishing; and consequently it may be
repeated for like purposes in later life. A Taulipdng girl, when coming
of age, is exposed to ants, tattooed, and whipped ; throughout her first
period she remains in her hammock partitioned from the rest of the hut,
observes a rigid diet, and is obliged to use a special scratcher for her
head. This last taboo also applies to mourners of either sex. At the
next four or five menstrual periods the prohibitions are somewhat re-
laxed, but the girl must not visit the plantation, seize knives or axes,
blow on a fire, or talk loudly lest her health suffer. The Siusi (Rio
Aiari) cut a girl's hair, paint her with genipa, restrict her food, and
wind up with a major carousal. The Tupinamha shave the girl's head
and scarify her, and the Guarani cut her hair, while among the Parinfintin
and some Montafia tribes she is deflowered. The Nambicuara isolate her
for several months outside the village, where she receives ritual food,
a bath terminating the period of seclusion. (See Koch-Grunberg, 1923 b,
pp. 121-131, 168; 1921, pp. 115, 220; Roth, 1915, pp. 308-313; Spix and
Martius, 1823-31, 3:1185 f., 1314 f., 1318, 1320 f; Bates, 1863, 2:405 f.)
Initiation of boys into a men's tribal society has a limited distribution.
The Tucanoans initiate boys to the ancestor cult, (the so-called "Yaupary"
cult), requiring them to take snuff and revealing to them the secret
38 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
megaphone and trumpet which represent the voices of the ancestors
(p. 783). The Witotoans (p. 760) and Tucuna (p. 718) seem similarly
to initiate boys to the secret trumpets. South of the Amazon, there is
no cult, except possibly in the Mojos-Chiquitos area where again there
are secret musical instruments. Preparation of boys for manhood starts
at a tender age, when they receive their first labrets (Tupinamba), take
parica snuff (Mura), have their teeth stained {Cashinawd), sleep in the
men's house {Mundurucu), are tonsured (Carajd), or experience other
formal stages of growing up.
Death. — In the disposal of the dead divergent procedures exist, some-
times even with the same tribe. The most widespread practice is to
bury the corpse in their huts. Usually care is taken to prevent direct
contact with the earth by erecting a palm-leaf shelter or some equivalent
device.
The posture is sometimes vertical, in other cases sitting, the latter
position being also employed in Riicuyen cremation. Almost all the
upper Xingti burials are in recumbent position with the head toward the
east. Funeral deposits are common, but not universal. Often, especially
after the death of a distinguished man, the house is abandoned. The
Cashinawa destroyed a deceased person's possessions.
Cemeteries occur, as among the Palicur; and Humboldt records an
assemblage of nearly 600 skeletons of the extinct A Hire, each in a separate
basket, the bones having been variously dyed for this secondary disposal
some months after primary burial in damp earth, followed by scraping.
Urns near the baskets also held bones, presumably those of one family.
(See also pi. 119, bottom.) Such secondary urn burial was widespread,
especially among Tupian tribes.
In some cases there are dietary taboos. The discarding of ornaments
and the cutting of the hair are widespread mourning practices. There
is often restriction on remarriage during the period. Lamentations are
kept up between death and the final ceremonies. Among the Cubeo, they
continue for 5 days in harmony with the mystic number of the upper
Rio Negro country.
A remarkable secondary procedure characterizes the Tapajo, Cubeo,
Arapium, certain Panoans, and some other groups. The cremated corpse
or the exhumed bones are burnt to ashes, which are mixed with festive
brew, and drunk with the beverage (e. g., pp. 254, 556; also Norden-
skiold, 1930 a, p. 12; Palmatary, 1939, p. 5 f.; Koch-Grunberg, 1921,
p. 316; Roth, 1924, pp. 642, 660).
In the Guianas, the closing mortuary solemnities might take place about
a year after the death, but the exact date apparently hinged on whether
the deceased person's manioc crop sufficed for supplying the wherewithal
for a carousal. These festivities involved not only drinking, singing,
and dancing, but also in some tribes (Arawak, Warrau) mutual flagella-
Plate 1. — Brazilian and Paraguayan landscapes from the air. Top, left:
Shifting agriculture in the forests of Maranhao, Brazil. Top, right: Tebicuary
River meandering across grassy plains of southern Paraguay, Guarani country.
(After Rich, 1942, Nos. 34, 136.) Bottom: A jungle delta in the Province of
Maranhao, Brazil. (Courtesy Albert W. Stevens and the National Geographic
Magazine.)
Plate 2. — The Peruvian Montana. {Top, Courtesy Grace Line; bottom, after
Johnson, 1930.)
?^J%
^i^^ssssfi ,■
**<:
^*^.
'--'/.
^^^§imm^
Plate 3.— Ecuadorean and Brazilian jungles. Top: Giant ferns, Ecuador.
(Courtesy H. E. Anthony and the National Geographic Magazine.) Bottom:
Along the lower Solimoes River, Brazil. (Courtesy American Museum of
Natural History.)
Plate 4. — Landscapes of Venezuela and the Guianas. Top: Beyond Suapure,
Venezuela, showing abrupt change to densely wooded ranges. The tonka bean
is the most characteristic tree. (Courtesy Llewelyn Williams.) Center:
Atorai country, British Guiana. (Courtesy University Museum, Philadelphia.)
Bottom: The ledge (dark diagonal line) approach to the summit of Roraima,
British Guiana. (Courtesy G. H. H. Tate and the National Geographic
Magazine.)
Plate 5. — Venezuela rivers. Top, left: Upper Orinoco. Top, right: Casiquiare
River. Center, left: Upper Orinoco. Center, right: Rio Negro, the Brazilian-
Venezuelan border. (Courtesy Llewelyn Williams.) Bottom: Casiquiare
River, showing typical cut banks and river vegetation. (Courtesy G. H. H.
Tate and C. B. Hitchcock.)
s
o
2 o
be
■:^W f09K
^•^ . i:
Plate 8. — Tropical forest agriculture and food preparation. Top: A collective
garden cleared by "slash-and-burn" technique. On the Pimenta Bueno
River, (Courtesy Claude Levi-Strauss.) Bottom: YaulaTpiti women crushing
manioc. (Courtesy University Museum, Philadelphia.)
Vol. 3] THE TROPICAL FORESTS— LOWIE 39
tion with a special whip. The dances might include animal mimicry of
the type performed at other celebrations. A kind of masquerade, but
with exposed faces, occurs among the Rucuyen; the performers, wearing
a towering headgear and a long bark fringe from the neck downward,
successively crack a long whip. But full-fledged masked dances as a
mortuary ritual characterize the upper Rio Negro, where butterflies,
carrion vultures, jaguars, etc., are all represented by the costumes and
the actors' behavior (p. 789). Koch-Grunberg (1921, pp. 78-85, 314 f.)
surmises that the purpose is to conciliate the spirit of the dead, to ward
off evil demons, and to foster success in hunting and farming. Women
attend these performances, but only as spectators (Roth, 1924, pp.
638-665).
ESTHETIC AND RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Art. — In the absence of detailed preliminary studies only a sketchy
treatment can be attempted.
As Max Schmidt has indicated, twilling produces parallel diagonal
effects, whose combination may yield distinct decorative designs, such as
concentric diamonds or concentric squares (M. Schmidt, 1905, p. 334
et seq.). Such textile designs are often secondarily transferred to other
media; they may be painted on the face, body, or pottery, incised on
house-posts and walls, engraved on dance implements and weapons, and
worked in beads (pi. 102, right). According to Koch-Griinberg, (1921,
pp. 341, 347), the primary textile patterns include zigzags, meanders,
series of right angles, etc. However that may be, neither definitely
curvilinear nor naturalistic forms can be derived from a textile technique.
Thus, variants of a spiral motif are prominently painted on the ceramics
of the Brazilian-Guiana litoral. Here also appear characteristic pairs
of overlapping, though not actually interlocking hooks; these couples
are variously arranged, in four or five-fold vertical series partitioned into
panels; in concentric circles on the inside of the vessel, etc. (Roth, 1924,
pis. 27-29). Again, the remarkable array of clubs from Guiana and
Brazil published by Stolpe (1927, pis. 1, 2, 16 et passim) reveals, indeed,
some patterns conceivably of textile origin, but many circles, scrolls,
scallops, and sundry combinations of curvilinear with rectilinear figures.
There are also unequivocally realistic representations of a quadruped and
a group of birds (Stolpe, 1927, p. 4, fig. 9; p. 12, fig, 4, a). Far less
faithful to nature are the numerous human forms, some of them so con-
ventionalized as to warrant conjecture that they may have sprung from
some geometrical figure, with secondary amplification and reading in of
a likeness to the human forms. Yet even here no specifically textile
model is indicated. Most interesting among these quasi-realistic club
decorations are twin figures in juxtaposition and either distinct or joined
so that adjacent arms or other parts of the body coalesce (Stolpe, 1927,
pis, 9, 10). Realistic forms also appear painted or drawn in charcoal
653333 — 47—5
40 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS IB.A.E. Bull. 143
on the bark covering of house walls or on house posts, a masculine torso
in full dance regalia being an ever recurrent sample. Such decoration
of posts is confined to the upper Caiari (Vaupes) River and the neighbor-
ing Aiari River (Koch-Griinberg, 1921, p. 348 f.) ; at times the rear
of the same pillars bears the picture of a giant snake. On the lower
and middle Xingu a maze pattern is painted on the body or incised on
utensils {Shipaya).
The masks of the Kaua, pieces of bast sewed over flexible rods, are
painted to simulate various beasts, small red circles and many black ones
being intended to suggest the spots of the jaguar's skin. The Cuheo
have bark-cloth masks representing anthropomorphic legendary beings,
such as demons and giants, as well as deer, sloths, snakes, butterflies, etc.
(PI. 98; also, Koch-Griinberg, 1921, pp. 7Z, 323-327, pi. 4; cf. also the
Tucuna bark-cloth animals, pi. 64.) The upper Xingu has many, well-
made masks (p. 342). Carved, wooden masks are used by several tribes
(pi. 44; figs. 40-^2).
Plastic work attains considerable heights in clay (fig. 36), wax (pi. 102 ;
fig. 23), and wood (figs. 30, 31, 37). The effigy pottery and the acces-
sories of earthenware vessels, grotesque and extravagant as they tend to
be, indicate much dexterity and sophistication. A Palicur turtle in clay
is admirably faithful to nature (Nimuendaju, 1926, p. 48), and the wax
figurines of great anteaters, peccaries, and tapirs by the Taulipdng (Koch-
Griinberg, 1923 b, p. 126) are certainly creditable. In wood, the benches
or stools carved from a single block, with an animal's head at one end
and its tail at the other (fig. 37), are noteworthy samples of native skill.
Caiman, beetle, jaguar, and snake heads are among those realistically
portrayed. Doctors' seats are as a rule specially decorated (Roth, 1924,
p. 273 et seq. ; Nimuendaju, 1926, p. 61). The Cubeo perform certain
dances, holding wooden figures of fish, birds, and lizards. On the Apa-
poris River the masks of the Opaina are topped by a cylindrical two-
winged headgear of very light wood, both the body and the lateral pro-
jections being profusely painted (Koch-Griinberg, 1921, p. 397, pi. 12).
Ceramic art has been mentioned (p. 26) .
Games. — Many scattered tribes from the Mojos-Chiquitos area and the
Guarani to the Uaupes-Caqueta region and the Guianas played a ball
game, many using a special rubber ball.
Another widespread ball game {Yecuana, Taulipdng, Bacdiri, Macushi
etc.) is shuttlecock, played with maize husks (fig. 49, c) struck with the
flat of the hand. A similar game is popular among young men on the
Caiari (Uaupes and Ariari Rivers (p. 889). The Kepikiriwat propel
the ball with their heads and stake arrows on the issue of a game.
Other athletic sports include true wrestling and a curious contest
(Warrau, p. 879), in which each player tries to push back his opponent
or throw him by pressure of a special form of shield against his ad-
Vol. 3] THE TROPICAL FORESTS— LOWIE 41
versary's. Foot races in the savannas over distances of 10 to 20 miles
are popular among the Macushi, who recognize champion runners. This
sport is combined with a drinking bout and wrestling: The beverage
brewed is stored in a house and the would-be winner has to force an
entry against guards trying to prevent his ingress. A dance follows
(Roth, 1924, p. 478 f.)
Boys from an early age practice archery, shooting small birds, and
organizing sham battles and hunts. In Guiana there are also diving and
other water sports. Children of both sexes imitate the economic activi-
ties of adults. They also mimic animals to the accompaniment of songs
and model clever wax figurines. Girls play with wooden dolls made
by their fathers. Macushi, Carib, and Siusi boys walk on stilts (fig. 115,
right). Tops (Guianas, upper Xingii, Montaiia, etc.) are spun by
youngsters, each trying to upset his opponent's ; and there are likewise
humming tops and buzzers. In several tribes either the children them-
selves or their elders often make the rejects of plaitwork into elaborate
toys representing such objects as rattles and balls or animals, like fish
and fleas.
Cat's-cradle figures exist in great profusion (e.g.. Roth, 1924, pp.
488-550) . The Andean dice game was played by Chirigumio.
Dances. — Irrespective of magico-religious connections, the dances of
the area have various social associations and functions. They are probably
always linked with singing and drinking bouts; they serve to maintain
friendly relations with neighboring tribes; and they offer opportunities
for barter, gossip, amatory dalliance, and the settling of quarrels. To
invite outsiders, the chief sends messengers with mnemonic cords having
a knot for each day until the opening of the festivity, a device also em-
ployed on other occasions. Major enterprises may draw together not
far from a thousand persons among the Taiilipang, with possibly 200
active performers. The dances follow one another in a sequence that
is presumably fixed at least in particular tribes. In Guiana the humming-
bird dance takes precedence: a company of decorated young men have
to fight their way through the ranks of their comrades to the covered
liquor-trough, where women try to pour pepper into their eyes, the
victor receiving the first drink and every one then capering round the
trough. Very popular are dances in mimicry of animals, the performers
sometimes impersonating a whole troup of monkeys or a herd of peccaries.
Women take part in some dances, but are excluded from others, at least
as active performers.
Some dances involve no special paraphernalia ; others are characterized
by a profusion of ornaments and accessories. In the parishara of the
Taulipang a kind of masquerade is worn, a plaited headgear partly covering
the face and a long fringe descending to the feet, as in the Rucuyen
funeral performance. The costume wearers blow wooden tubes with
653333—47—6
42 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
gaily painted figurines at one end, while in the other hand they carry
a long staff with pendent deer dew claws or seed capsules at the top.
The dancers form a long Indian file, each bending his knees, stamping
his right foot, advancing a step, flexing the upper part of the body, then
dragging the left foot forward. Each division has a song and dance
leader. The staff is struck against the ground in rhythmic unison with
the steps. When the performers, starting from the savanna, have reached
the village, women and girls join, each placing her right hand on her
male partner's left shoulder, or both hands on her neighbor's shoulders
on both sides. Now an open ring develops and the performers move
forward and backward, to the right and the left, uttering shouts after
each figure. During the dancing and the intermission women or girls
offer calabashes of drink to the performers.
Some dances are connected with mythological tales and may envisage
magical effects in fishing and hunting. The Apapocuva Guarani, haunted
by fear of an impending world catastrophe, tried throughout the historic
period to escape destruction under the leadership of shamans who were
to guide them through sacred dances to an earthly paradise (p. 94).
(Koch-Grunberg, 1923 b, p. 154 et seq.; Roth, 1924, pp. 470-483;
Nimuendaju, 1914 c.)
Music. — (For general treatment, see Izikowitz, 1935.)
Although stringed instruments — musical bows and violins — undoubtedly
occur in the area, their aboriginal character is strongly suspect. There
is no reference to them in the earliest post-Columbian literature and the
terms applied to these chordophones are in the main clearly derived from
Spanish or Negro vocables. It is also noteworthy that, as in Africa,
the bow is usually played by striking the string with a stick (Izikowitz,
1935, pp. 201-206).
As to membranophones, the European military drum gained consider-
able distribution in the historical period, but the general use of Spanish
designations again casts doubt on the pre-Columbian occurrence of these
instruments in Amazonia, though Roth does not consider the argument
conclusive. (Nordenskiold, 1930 a, p. 165 ; Roth, 1924, p. 467; Izikowitz,
1935, p. 193.)
On the other hand, percussion idiophones are well represented. Note-
worthy in view of Mexican, Pueblo, and California occurrences is the
use of a plank foot drum by the Rucuyen and at Arawak funeral cere-
monies (Roth, 1924, pp. 468 f., 649 ; Izikowitz, 1935, pp. 11-13). Equally
significant is the presence of the tomtom ("hollow-log drum"), in eastern
Ecuador and in the Orinoco and Rio Negro districts, generally for signal-
ing, as among the Witoto (pis. 81, top; 99, top). Typically, it is carefully
hollowed out from a tree trunk so as to leave a narrow slit. In use it
is generally suspended from posts. A unique adaptation of this occurs
among the Mangeroma (p. 679). The widespread, two-headed skin
Vol. 3] THE TROPICAL FORESTS— LOWIB 43
drum (pi. 62) is probably of European origin. Of jingling idiophone ap-
pendages the deer-hoof rattle is noteworthy, being reported from the
Roraima region (Izikowitz, 1935, p. 39). More important are rattles,
those from gourds (Lagenaria) being shaken by the natural grip, while
the round calabash (Crescentia) fruits are fitted to a handle. These
instruments are often the special property of medicine men, though
children may use basketry imitations (pi. 118, /, g). They occur far
beyond the Tropical Forest area, as does the time-marking ground
pounder — Metraux's "baton de rhythme," Izikowitz's "stamping tube" —
which seems to have spread far to the south through Tupi-Guarani in-
fluence. Most frequently a bamboo tube {Witoto, pi. 83, bottom, right;
Cuheo, pi. 96; and Roraima Indians), it is made of Cecropia wood in
the Rio Negro region (Metraux, 1928 a, pp. 215 f., 225; Izikowitz, 1935,
pp. 151 et seq.).
Aerophones are likewise conspicuous. Trumpets assume many forms:
there are two- and three-bellied clay vessels with narrow mouthpieces
(Orinoco, Guiana) ; long tubes of spirally wound bark, varying in size
(Orinoco River, Vaupes River, Wapishana, etc., pi. 39; fig. 100) and in
the Rio Negro territory strictly concealed from women; similar wooden
instruments (pi. 101, lejt) ; conchs (Guiana) ; Lagenaria gourds
{Wapishana) ; and combinations of a trumpet with a resonator of gourd
or other material (fig. 46, left). Whether the clarinets found in and
near Guiana are aboriginal, is as yet not clear. The wind instruments
technically definable as flutes, include, among others, clay and wooden
whistles (fig. 49, a, h,) ; quenas or notched flutes (Montafia) ; bone flutes
(fig. 48) ; nose flutes {Nambicuara, pi. 36, top, right; Guiana) ; and
panpipes (pis. 36, bottom, left; 79). The last-mentioned occur through-
out the Tropical Forest and appear in ancient Peruvian graves. Similarity
of pitch in Melanesian and South American panpipes led Von Horn-
bostel to argue for their transmission to the New World, but Izikowitz
(1935, pp. 378-408) regards the question as still open.
Narcotics. — Although widely spread and generally cultivated in our
area, tobacco has competitors that locally overshadow it. In the north-
west, coca chewing and on the middle Amazon, parica snuffing make it
recede into the background. Among the Tuyuca, guests receive both a
cigar and coca. Witoto councilors chew coca, but also swear oaths by lick-
ing their fingers after dipping them in a sirupy mess of boiled tobacco
leaves.
Coca (Erythroxylon coca) appears only along the eastern slope of the
Andes, except in Colombia, where it spreads eastward in the Uaupes-
Caqueta region. Spix and Martins (1823-31, 3: 1169 f., 1180) found
no wild samples anywhere in Brazil, and did not strike any plantation
before reaching Ega. In the west, however, enormous quantities are
consumed, travelers of the Caiari (Uaupes) district taking a few small
44 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS TB.A.E. Bull. 143
sackfuls of coca in lieu of all other provisions for a march of a day and
a half (Koch-Griinberg, 1921, pp. 174 f., 204). Only the men — the main
consumers — tend, harvest, and prepare the plant. They roast and pound
the leaves up, mix the powder with the ashes from Cecropia leaves, and
store the combination in a bast bag into which a long rod is inserted and
secured by tying the container together. By tapping the rod, the user
makes the powder ooze out of the bast, collecting it in a calabash, from
which he can dip it up with a spoon or a leaf. Travelers sling calabashes
with coca powder over the left shoulder and suck out the stimulant with
a hollow bone. The un familiarity of the Chiquitos-Mojos Indians with
coca is noteworthy in view of their Andean contacts.
In some tribes (Arecuna) women never smoke, in others both sexes
and even children indulge freely. On the upper Amazon, Spix and
Martins (1823-31, 3: 1180) found that tobacco is most frequently used
by shamans, who blow the smoke on their patients (p. 50). Bates
(1863, 2: 407) mentions an extraordinary medicinal use: an old Ega
Indian cured a tumor due to the grub of a gadfly by stupefying the
insect with strong tobacco juice, thereby causing it to relax its grip and
facilitating its removal. This is paralleled among the Chacobo, who
grow tobacco for this exclusive purpose (Nordenskiold, 1922, p. 182.).
In Guiana tobacco is smoked only in the form of cigarettes, the bark
of certain trees providing the wrapper. The Tuyuca and Cubeo (pi. 103,
left) circulate giant cigars 8 to 10 inches (20 to 25 cm.) long — clamped
between the two tines of a forklike holder. Several Guiana tribes chew
tobacco, mixing it with salt or the ashes of an aquatic plant {M our era
fluviatilis), which are kept in little gourds with a stick projecting through
the stopper. In the Montaria, consumption of tobacco was formerly re-
stricted largely to shamans, but is now more general.
Parica (yupa, niopo) snuff, made of the seeds of Mimosa acacioides,
likewise has a considerable distribution, being popular on the lower
Amazon (Maue, Oniagua), and the Yapura, as well as sporadically on
the Caiari (Uaupes) River. In the Guapore River region a shaman
blows snuff composed of crushed angico, tobacco leaves, and bark ashes
into his patient's nose. The Witoto put one branch into the mouth, the
other into one nostril, a puff of breath propelling the powder into the
inner portions of the mucous membrane. These people also have an
X-shaped combination of two bones, by which two friends may simul-
taneously blow snuff into each other's nostrils (fig. 106). Parica evokes
sneezing and extreme exhilaration to the point of frenzy, followed by
depression and stupor. It may figure largely at festivals (Spix and
Martins, 1823-31, 3 : 1074 f.) . Parica is taken as an enema with a syringe
in the Jurua- Purvis region, and among the Mura (p. 263).
In the northwest Amazon region, cayapi (Banisteriopsis caapi and
other species; see p. 7), is a favorite stimulant, served as an infusion
Vol. 3] THE TROPICAL FORESTS— LOWIE 45
at festivals, such as the Tucano tribal society's dance, in order to induce
delightful hallucinations, which have been compared to those due to
hashish. All things appear to be huge and gorgeously colored, there are
visions of motley-tinted snakes and of erotic experiences. Some partakers
fall into a deep sleep, awakening with severe headache. On novices the
brew acts as an emetic. Women never drink cayapi, the preparation of
which is wholly a masculine task. The men pound up the roots, stems,
and leaves of the shrub into a greenish-brown mass, which is washed
with water, squeezed dry, and again pounded and washed. The resulting
substance, not unlike cow dung in appearance, is strained through a
double sifter into the bellied cayapi urn, which is covered with leaves
and placed outdoors. It has two horizontal handles and two perforations
with a connecting suspension cord. Though never washed, the vessel
is now and then repainted with the same yellow designs on a dark-red
background. (See also, Koch-Grunberg, 1921, pp. 189 fif., 200 f., 219 f.,
373.)
Other stimulants, largely restricted to southeast Colombia and tropical
Ecuador, are floripondia {Datura arborea) and yoco (Paulliniayoco).
(See p. 7.)
Peppers (Capsicum) are used by the Macushi as a stimulant, crushed
peppers and water being poured into the nostrils to cure headache. In
the Pomeroon district Capsicum enemas are in vogue.
Intoxicating drinks. — Fermented beverages are lacking on the upper
Xingu and among many Tupian tribes, but for large sections of the area
the drinking spree, as an end in itself or an accompaniment of all serious
occasions, is diagnostic, especially in contrast to the Ge. A variety of
beverages are prepared, of which the narcotic cayapi has already been
described. Manioc forms the most common base of fermented drinks,
generically called chicha, but may be only one of several ingredients.
The preparation of chicha is illustrated in the Rio Negro region, where
it is called cashiri. The Indians mix the particles of toasted manioc
cakes in a trough with fresh water, fermentation being accelerated by
the addition of chewed beiju. The chewing is done mainly by women,
who carefully knead the mass together with leaves of a certain tree. The
trough, tightly covered, is allowed to stand indoors by a fire maintained
overnight, yielding a sweetish, harmless brew. Two days' fermentation
is required for intoxicating effects, which a woman achieves by squeezing
the brown gruel through a basketry strainer into a pot, from which she
or her husband serve guests. Sometimes the mass, after being set fer-
menting, is kept wrapped up in the trough of a large pot, to be strained
with water when an occasion for use arises. Sweet potatoes, maize, and
the fruits of the pupunha and of other palms may all be substituted for
manioc (Koch-Griinberg, 1921, p. 39 f.), to which in modern times
sugarcane juice is frequently added.
46 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
The Barama Carib makes cashirim by grating and squeezing cassava,
then putting it into a large pot with water, into which they spit chewed
portions of thin manioc cakes. The mixture is then placed in the house-
hold trough and fermented for 3 days, when it acquires the alcoholic
content of weak beer. For another chicha, called paiwari, these Indians
thoroughly toast manioc cakes; small fragments of these are put into a
pot filled with water and bits of chewed cake are added, as for cashirim,
before removal to the trough. The toasting produces a distinctive cereal-
like taste which Gillin compares to rye toast soaked in weak beer; it
obviously allies the brew to Rio Negro cashirim.
In other parts of the area, a great variety of starchy crops and of wild
fruits are made into chicha, but distillation is unknown except to the
Quijo, among whom it is undoubtedly a post-Columbian acquisition.
RELIGION, SHAMANISM, AND MEDICINE
High Gods and tribal heroes.— Roth's denial (1915, pp. 117 fif.) of
any notion of a Supreme Being in the Guianas is not literally correct.
According to an early author quoted by him, the Sun is regarded as an
outstanding deity by some Orinoco tribes, and the Moon by others; the
Barama Carib conceive of a primeval starter of the universe (Gillin,
1936, p. 155) ; and the Witoto deity (Preuss, 1921, pp. 25 et seq., 166),
notwithstanding the curiously abstract statements about his primeval
doings, is even more definitely a creator and maintainer of the world.
The Apapocuva Guarani speak of Our Great Father as the creator, and
his sons figure as heroes. Nevertheless, generally a Supreme Being, if
present, recedes in religious consciousness before other beings.
Among these, tribal heroes loom large, at least in myth. They appear
either as lone figures, pairs, or trios. Thus, the Yahuna tell of Milomaki,
a boy who suddenly appeared from the east and sang so beautifully that
everyone came to hear him. But when his auditors came home and ate
fish, they all fell dead, so their kinsfolk burnt the boy on a pyre. His
soul rose to the sky, however, and out of his ashes grew the pashiuba
palm, whose wood the people made into large flutes that reproduced the
wondrously fine tunes sung by the boy. These instruments — taboo to
women and small boys, who would die if they saw them — the men still
play when fruits are ripe, and they dance in honor of Milomaki as the
creator of all fruits (Koch-Griinberg, 1923 b, p. 386 f.). The Cubeo tell
of Homanihiko, whose mother drowns while big with him. He crawls
out of her womb when a carrion vulture pierces her abdomen. Flying
on the bird's back, the wonder-working infant transforms his own grand-
mother from a serpent into human shape, avenges his father's death by
shooting the jaguar responsible for it, and kills all manner of the then
quasi-human beasts, birds, and insects. Although two brothers of the
hero are mentioned, he alone figures as the national ancestor. One of his
Vol. 3] THE TROPICAL FORESTS— LOWIE 47
brothers, however, Kuai, is considered the inventor of masquerade dances
and their costumes; the other, dwelHng in a large stone house, presides
over the souls of the dead.
According to our authority, Kuai is originally an Arawakan character,
the son of Yaperikuli, the national hero of the tribes of that stock in the
Rio Negro region. He is credited with the rock-drawings seen in
Tariana territory ; and on the Aiari River a large human rock-engraving
is interpreted as Kuai, after whom the Siusi name their sacred flutes,
taboo to women, which are blown at a festival celebrated when certain
palm fruits have ripened. Successive flagellation of the dancers till their
blood streams from their wounds characterizes this ceremonial, which is
also named Kuai (Koch-Griinberg, 1923 b, pp. 69, 121, 261).
Typical twin myths are known from the Xingii River {Bacairi, Ship-
aya), the Tupi-Guarani tribes, the Warrau, and the Cariban tribes. In
the Guiana form, the Sun renders a woman pregnant with twins, then
leaves her. She follows in his tracks, guided by one or both of the un-
born children, whom she affronts so that advice is no longer forthcoming.
As a result, she strays to the Jaguar house, where she dies (Warrau) or
is killed (Carib). Either the Jaguar or Frog, his mother, extracts the
twins by a Caesarean operation; they get fire for mankind (Warrau),
avenge and restore their mother (Carib), and finally reach their father,
where they turn into stars (Carib). In the Macushi variant, one of the
twin brothers is carried off by a crane, but the other develops into a
culture hero, teaching the Indians useful things as he travels about (Roth,
1924, pp. 130-136).
It is not clear how generally the tribal heroes are prayed to or other-
wise worshiped, but Cubeo supematuralism centers in the cult of the clan
ancestors and in shamanism. The former is associated with the boys'
initiation, at which the novices learn about sacred musical instruments,
taboo to women, and are whipped to make them grow. Males bathe to
the sound of sacred horns when seeking strength. Widespread among
Tupian tribes is a mythological character — Our Great Father of the
Guarani — associated with an afterworld of happiness. Among both the
Tupinaniba and Guarani, this god became prominent in a strong messianic
cult (pp.90, 93-94, 131).
Thunder is the principal deity of the Nambicuara and reveals himself
to shamans; less frequently, to other adult males. He is an important
deity, but definitely not a Supreme Being for the Guarani.
Animism. — Animism is very strongly developed. The Taulipdng, who
credit even plants and animals with souls, attribute no less than five to
mankind. Only one of these goes to the land of spirits after the death
of the body, three turn into birds of prey, the fifth remains with the
corpse and bears the same name as a demon who causes eclipses. The
surviving soul goes to the sky via the Milky Way ; it is waylaid by dogs.
48 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
which destroy it if its owner abused his dog on earth, other souls being
allowed to join their tribesmen.
Widespread notions typical of primitive belief elsewhere crop up here
too. Thus the Cubeo hold that the soul leaves the body in dreams and in
sneezing. Great significance is attached to dreams.
Fundamental to the entire area are bush spirits, which are variously
conceived but universally feared, so that a common function of the shaman
is their control. The Barama Carib recognize five distinct categories
with a controlling master within each, the classes being associated, respec-
tively, with the forest and land generally ; the air ; the water ; the hills ;
and miscellaneous places or things, such as houses and industries. Each
group is symbolized by a stone of a distinctive color or texture, sup-
posedly represented by small pebbles in the rattle of the shaman through
whom the spirits are approached. In addition, the Barama Carib recog-
nize other supernatural beings definitely in any of the major categories.
The bush spirits are generally mischief makers, causing the mishaps of
daily life; water spirits figure as on the whole benevolent, but wreck
travelers who venture to utter certain tabooed words while in a boat.
(See also Roth, 1924, pp. 179 f., 245 f., 252.)
The TauHpdng have a well-defined belief in certain beings as lords or
"fathers" of whole classes of beasts, etc. Thus, a fisherman must pray
to the master of fish to let him have a catch. Supernatural beings, in-
cluding animals, are supposed to be really anthropomorphic, but capable
of shifting their shape by donning an appropriate covering. Thus the
"father of game animals," who is also identified with the rainbow, turns
into a large snake by putting on a mottled skin, as does the "father of
fish" ; and the jaguar correspondingly transforms himself from human
guise by clothing himself in his skin ( Koch-Griinberg, 1923 b, pp. 176-
189). Generically similar notions appear in the masquerade dances of the
Siusi and the Cubeo, whose demons are identified with the costume worn by
the performers, though the spirits themselves are visible only to the
medicine men, not to the lay spectator.
The conflict of good and evil spirits is well illustrated at Palicur fes-
tivals, where each decorative feather on a dancer's headgear is the seat
of a supernatural guardian, and the feathered staffs bounding the cere-
monial square warn the protectors against the advent of demons, who
bump against the cord connecting the posts. Moreover, the pole erected
as a path to heaven is topped with a dance rattle bearing two of the spirit
feathers and is further guarded by half a dozen feathered staffs at its
foot (Nimuendaju, 1926, pp. 66 f., 87 f.).
Shamanism. — Probably a temple cult with priests as distinguished
from shamans is restricted to the Mojos-Chiquitos region. On the other
hand, shamans — though not shamanistic procedures — are reported as
lacking among the Siriono. On the lower Xingii, the shaman intermedi-
Vol. 3] THE TROPICAL FORESTS— LOWIB 49
ates between living people and the gods and souls of the dead, but curing
is a secular function.
The shaman often socially overshadows the chief, for the spirit world
is most commonly approached through him only. Occasionally, but rarely
and probably only in some tribes, women practice. A son often inherits
his father's profession, but this is by no means a universal rule. The
shaman is primarily a doctor and detector of sorcerers, but may also act
as master of ceremonies (e.g., Guarani, p. 92; Palicur), counselor in
warfare, prophet, finder of lost goods, name giver, depository of tradition,
weather maker, etc. A prospective shaman undergoes a long period of
training under his father or teacher, during which he diets, is instructed,
acquires familiar spirits, and receives in his body various magical sub-
stances or objects regarded as the source of his power and, when pro-
jected into victims, as the cause of disease. He is also given tobacco in
various forms and other stimulants, especially in the northwest Amazon
region, such as Datura and ayahuasca. In some tribes, the shaman re-
ceives his magical substance from a spirit, in others from his tutor. For
a few tribes, the practitioner is stated to control one or more familiar
spirits (e.g., Tenetehara, Tapirape, pp. 147, 177). In the western Amazon,
he is associated with the jaguar (p. 682). There is no evidence that
shamans of this area manifest epileptic or other abnormal tendencies, but
trances, usually induced by drugs, are not uncommon.
The magical substance is usually a quartz crystal in Guiana, a "thorn"
or "arrow" in the region of the western Amazon and upper Xingu. Dur-
ing his initiation, the neophyte gains immunity to and control of those
substances, which he is supposed to take into his body.
The foremost insignia of the shaman — widespread, though not uni-
versal — are the gourd rattle, the crystal, a carved and painted bench, and
a doll whose position during treatment indicates whether a patient is to
recover. The doll is reported from parts of Guiana. The Taulipdng
medicine man shakes a bunch of leaves instead of the rattle so used by
doctors from Guiana to the Caiari (Uaupes) River. The bench seems
most characteristic of Guiana. Crystals turn up in Guiana, on the
Orinoco, and in the upper Rio Negro region, whither they may have been
imported from the Orinoco ( Koch-Griinberg, 1923 b, p. 208). On the
Guapore River the shaman's insignia are a snuffing tube, a board for mixing
snuff, and a mystic feathered stick. Among the powers widely claimed by
shamans is the ability to transform themselves into jaguars. A Cuheo
shaman's soul enters a jaguar when he dies, thus separating itself from
other people's spirits, which join the clan ancestors.
Palicur doctoring is in most ways typical (Nimuendaju, 1926, pp. 91
et seq.) . The shaman invariably works in complete darkness under a mos-
quito net — the equivalent of a special palm-leaf compartment anciently
used. Putting on a feather diadem, he rises, bids all present farewell
since his soul is about to start on its journey, and crawls under the
50 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
net, an assistant passing in to him the animal-shaped bench and a basket
holding the shamanistic paraphernalia. The doctor sits down, removes
from his basket the dance rattle and a root whose odor the spirits like,
for which reason he grates away particles of it and sprinkles them on
his hair. The assistant next hands him a lighted cigar. Soon groans,
whistling, and singing become audible, the glowing tip of the cigar is
seen floating downward from the ceiling of the mosquito net, and a re-
sounding footstep signalizes the entrance of the first spirit into the
medicine man's body. His own soul has left to summon the friendly
spirits, including those of the dead. Each of these sings his own chants
to the music of the rattle, all spectators joining. After 5 to 10 minutes
of singing, the spirit converses with the assistant. Those present ques-
tion the visitant about their own affairs. At last there arrives one spirit
considered expert in the treatment required, and him the assistant con-
sults. This continues for hours until the last spirit leaves, as indicated
by the soaring cigar tip. The shaman crawls out of his compartment.
Another procedure is to bring the patient, too, under the net. In actual
treatment the doctor undresses the sick man, shakes his rattle all over
the body till he strikes the seat of the malady, then summons his patrons
against the causes of the disease, which may precipitate a noisy conflict.
If the powers of evil conquer, the doctor admits his failure and casts
about for a more competent colleague. Extraction of the disease by
suction is also reported, but not reckoned essential. A cured patient
regales his savior with a dance and drinking-festival, which is naturally
directed by the successful doctor.
Some of these traits, even apart from the sucking technique, have a
wide distribution. The insistence on darkness, for example, occurs among
the Pomeroon Arawak and Carib. Certain Palicur features are elaborated
elsewhere: The Siusi shaman massages out of the patient five sticks as
the agents of the disease and not merely puffs a cigar, but blows the
smoke on the patient — a. prevalent practice throughout the Tropical
Forests (pi. 120, center) — and himself swallows the smoke; again, the
Taulipdng shaman drinks tobacco juice to expedite his soul to the sky.
Ventriloquism seems highly developed by the Taulipdng; a Northwest
Brazilian specialty is pouring cupfuls of an aromatic infusion over the
patient's head and body (Koch-Griinberg, 1921, pp. 97 f., 113). The
Montafia and northwest Amazon doctor extracts needles or thorns as
pathogenic agents (pp. 532, 703).
Fees are often contingent on a cure. In recent times a Taulipdng
healer is usually compensated with European goods. A Cubeo receives
urucu, pottery, bows, or hammocks. The Palicur express their appreci-
ation by a feast.
The nonmedical duties of a Palicur shaman are illustrated during fes-
tivals, when he consecrates feathers, dance rattles, and carved settees by
blowing smoke on them, thereby causing spirits to enter these objects,
Vol. 3] THE TROPICAL FORESTS— LOWIE 51
whence they are expelled at the close of the ceremony (Nimuendaju, 1926,
pp. 95, 98 f.)
Bad shamans may practice magic or summon spirits to harm personal
enemies, but most tribes deal severely with such sorcerers. Alleged
witchcraft is a usual incentive for murder, and consequently the most
common cause of warfare, as it initiates a series of reprisals.
Soul-loss as a cause of disease has been recorded from few tribes — e.g.,
Cocama, Omagua, Coto, and Itonama — but it is a concept that would
escape superficial observation.
Kanaima.— (Gillin, 1936, pp. 99 f., 149-152; Roth, 1915, pp. 346, 354
et seq. ; Koch-Griinberg, 1923 b, pp. 216-219.) This term and its equiva-
lents in Guiana designate (a) a certain evil spirit; (&) the man possessed
by it or otherwise driven to devote himself to a work of vengeance; (c)
the procedure followed by the avenger, including the poison or other
means employed. In any case, the concept denotes the most malevolent
antisocial behavior. Among the Barama Carib, the prospective kanaima
is regarded as joining a cult, learning from its headman the arts of enter-
ing houses unseen, benumbing one's victims, and inflicting incurable
ailments. Kanaimas are accordingly outlawed, killing them being a mer-
itorious deed. The Taulipdng, Tucanoan, Witotoan, Jivaro, or Campa
belief in jaguar shamans merges in the kanaima concept, for the kanaima
often dons the jaguar pelt in order to alarm and kill people. Contagious
magic is likewise imputed to these individuals; they enclose a victim's
spittle in a bamboo container and, by working magic over it, destroy
the expectorator. Hostile tribes are often regarded as kanaimas.
Medicine. — (Roth, 1924, pp. 702-714.) Apart from supernatural treat-
ment, a shaman may employ techniques open to the laity. Prominent
among Guiana remedies are emetics, e.g., the bitter bark of the wallaba
tree (Eperua sp.), of which two or three drams are boiled in a quart of
water, a few spoonfuls making an effective dose. Purgatives include the
root of Cephaelis ipecacuanha. In Guiana enemas are made from a turtle,
jaguar, or other mammalian bladder attached to a reed nozzle ; and rubber
syringes characterize tribes on the Amazon. Vapor baths occur: while
the patient rests in his hammock, red-hot stones are thrown into a large
vessel of water under him (Macushi, Guinau) ; or water is thrown on
large heated stones so as to envelop him in the steam. Rucuyen women
take such vapor baths after confinement. Bleeding is frequently used for
fatigue, stiffness in the limbs, and other ailments. Ant bites serve as
counterirritants in cases of rheumatism and fever, the patient sometimes
rolling himself in an ant's nest. Many domestic remedies against fevers,
diarrhea, dysentery, and other afflictions consist of decoctions or infusions
of the inner bark of certain trees. Guarana, a hard substance made from
the pounded seeds of Paullinia sorbilis, is prepared by the Maue, who
have a virtual monopoly of it, and widely traded as a medicine against
diarrhea and intermittent fevers ; it is grated and then mixed with water
52 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B,A.E. Bull. 143
(p. 252). For sting-ray wounds the Indians of the lower Amazon apply
a poultice of mangrove bark mixed with palm oil. The sticky gum of
Eperua serves as a plaster for wounds. For snake bite the wound is
cut out and sucked, but some tribes also administer antidotes in the form
of infusions; on the Essequibo River, the decoction of a certain root
was both drunk and poured upon the wound. On the upper Amazon,
Cyperus roots were attributed many therapeutic and magic virtues.
Magic and ritual practice. — The machinations of witches and sor-
cerers have already been noted, with the occasional practice of contagious
magic. The Indians of the Guapore River (p. 378) believe in an invisible
fluid which shamans may introduce, for good or evil, into food or human
bodies. Impersonal supernaturalism is prominent in the prescriptions
and taboos incident to birth and other critical situations. (See Life
Cycle, p. 35.) The belief in a sympathetic bond between related individ-
uals extends beyond the couvade in the general rule in Guiana that a
patient's whole family must share his dietary restrictions (Roth, 1915,
p. 352), a notion shared by some Northern Ge. A principle akin to
sympathetic magic also appears in the use of certain varieties of caladia
to attract particular animals and fish because of some fancied similarity:
A "deer" caladium is supposed to suggest horns and the coloring of the
fur in its venation, an "armadillo" caladium resembles the animal in
having small projecting ears, etc. (Roth, 1915, p. 281 £.).
Taboos are innumerable. To mention only a few, chosen for their
comparative interest, Guiana tribes will not tell spirit legends in the day-
time nor utter a person's name in his presence ; a hunter never brings
his kill home, but leaves it for the women to fetch. The Arazvak abstain
from eating after nightfall lest they be transformed into animals ; during
the couvade, Macushi parents must substitute a special scratcher for
their fingernails (Roth, 1915, pp. 193, 294-295, 304, 323). Of these, the
last-mentioned recurs as far south as the Yahgan, and the name-taboo
is equally pronounced among the Siusi and Cuheo (Koch-Griinberg, 1921,
pp. 117, 311). Some taboos, such as the story-telling one and the pro-
hibition of women from seeing the instruments sacred to a spirit (Koch-
Griinberg, 1921, pp. 119, 322) on pain of automatic death are, of course,
associated with animistic notions.
Of positive prescriptions may be cited the talismanic application of
red body paint, scarification, and the ever recurrent flagellation.
Of extraordinary interest are the magical formulae of the Taulipdng,
which the discoverer, Koch-Griinberg (1923 b, pp. 219-270) aligns with
Cherokee and Hupa equivalents in North America. They are the prop-
erty of laymen on equal terms with shamans and serve mainly to cure
or impose bodily afflictions. These spells are linked with brief tales ex-
pounding how ancestral beings introduced various ills into the world, which
can be removed with the aid of beasts or plants somehow associated with
Vol. 3] THE TROPICAL FORESTS— LOWIE 53
the malady. Thus, intestinal worms are overcome by declamation of a
formula in which two dogs are addressed, for dogs suffer from these
worms without dying from them.
A number of ritual and semiritual practices are found in the area, en-
tering various contexts. The ant ordeal, associated especially with boy's
puberty in the Guianas and among several Tupian tribes south of the
Amazon, is used by the Mura to insure fishing success. Flagellation
enters the Vaupes-Caqueta boy's initiation into the ancestor cult and
the Macushi girl's puberty rite, but the Mura whip children to increase
manioc yield and adults to give them strength, the Chehero flog pubescent
girls, and the Guiana Arawak whip one another at a funeral ceremony
to drive away evil spirits. In the Montaiaa, several tribes put pepper
in the eyes of hunters for clear vision and strength, but the Pomeroon
Arawak take pepper in enemas as a curative. Similarly, the several
kinds of snuff and tobacco in various forms were taken for many purposes.
Ceremonialism. — Ceremonials connected with the life cycle — birth,
puberty, initiations, and death — are most pronounced and have been men-
tioned. Many tribes, especially the Tupians, had rites concerned with
subsistence activities, some even resembling harvest ceremonies. Of this
type are Mundurucu festivals for maize and manioc growth and for
hunting and fishing success, when a shaman makes offerings to fish
skulls; the Guarani and Tapirape harvest ceremony; the Tenetehara
honey festival to protect growing maize ; the Cashinawa dance to influence
the maize spirit; the Camayura hunting and fishing ceremony; and the
Trumai manioc ceremony.
In the Rio Negro country the mystic significance of the number five
is conspicuous. A funeral festivity opens 5 days after the burial and
continues for 5 days, as does a mother's post-natal seclusion; youths
initiated by flagellation are subject to 5-month dietary taboos ; an accepted
suitor spends 5 days in his prospective father-in-law's house ; the lament
over the dead lasts 5 days ; a shaman extracts 5 sticks ( Koch-Griinberg,
1921, pp. 98, 107, 113, 116, 196, 263, 308, 310, 314, 322, 329). Else-
where there is no such unequivocal preference, yet the Taulipdng believe
in 5 human souls, make the shaman's apprentice drink a bark infusion
for 5 nights, and have sporadic references to 10 and other multiples of
five (Koch-Grunberg, 1923 b, pp. 170, 189, 203, 205).
The major festivals on the upper Rio Negro seem to fall into two main
categories: (a) those associated with musical instruments taboo to
women; (b) performances by mummers. The costumes and dances (p.
41) characteristic of the second type are at least sometimes linked with
a memorial service in honor of a recently deceased tribesman. Their
object is said to be complex — appeasement of spirits by their impersona-
tion and promotion of fertility by phaHic dances (Koch-Griinberg, 1921,
pp. 82 et seq., 324 et seq.). All sorts of animals may be realistically
54 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
mimicked. The other type of performance, the "Yurupary" dance of
the Lingua Geral, may be regarded as the basis of a men's tribal society
(but see p. 704). The sacred instruments symboHze the spirit to
whom the ceremonial is dedicated, and flogging of the novices is a pre-
requisite to entrance (Koch-Griinberg, 1921, pp. 120 f., 130, 135 £.,
198 fJ., 217 fif., 263, 314 f., 322, 372). The Mundurucu tell a myth about
a pristine matriarchate, the women making their spouses do all the work
while themselves lived in the club house and played wind instruments.
Once, however, the men detected them in the act, took the flutes away
from them, and reversed the relative status of the sexes (Kruse, 1934,
1 : 51-57). This tale is obviously very similar in essence to the Fuegian
story of a great revolution depriving women of the ascendancy they en-
joyed as possessors of masks.
In the Shipaya feast of the dead, the souls enter the shaman's body.
Among the same people, Kumapari, father of twin heroes and identified
with the jaguar, is the center of a cult which involves cannibalism.
MYTHOLOGY AND LITERATURE
Under the head of Religion, Shamanism, and Medicine (p. 46), certain
hero myths have been indicated. For lack of preliminary work, it is impos-
sible to offer a comparative tribal study, let alone one on the literary
styles. The culture hero, whose main contribution to mankind was do-
mesticated plants, is universal in the area, as indeed elsewhere. In some
tales he is also the Creator; associated with him is a trickster, often his
brother. For the Witoto we have a useful roster of themes, but Preuss's
bias in favor of lunar interpretations mars his presentation. However,
he shows the prevalence of stories revolving about the elopement of either
spouse and the urge for vengeance (Preuss, 1921, 1 : 115 et seq.).
In view of the nature of the available material, it is merely feasible to
list a number of important motifs. Some of them have an extremely
wide range, far beyond the Forest area, as demonstrated in Koch-Griin-
berg's popular collection (1927).
Remarkable is the Witoto story of the incestuous nocturnal lover whom
his sister identifies by painting him (Preuss, 1922, pp. 107, 331). A
still closer analogy to the Eskimo tale, however, occurs among the Ship-
aya on the Iriri River, a tributary of the Xingii River, where the brother
is identified with the moon, as he is by the Canelo of eastern Ecuador,
the Warrau and Arawak of Guiana. (Nimuendajii, 1919-20, vols. 14-15,
p. 1010 f.; Karsten, 1935, p. 522; Roth, 1915, p. 256.)
A motif of pan-American interest that occurs in many distinct set-
tings is the rolling skull. In the Cashinazva version, a decapitated man's
skull rolls after his own kin, transforming itself into the moon and also
creating the rainbow and menstruation (Capistrano de Abreu, quoted by
Koch-Griinberg, 1927, p. 232 et seq.). The motif, known from the Chaco,
Vol. 3] THE TROPICAL FORESTS— LOWIE 55
occurs among such people as the Warrau and the Shipaya (Roth, 1915,
pp. 129; Nimuendaju, 1921-22, p. 369). Its African occurrence raises
the recurring problem of possible Negro influence (Weeks, 1913, p. 208),
which arises also concerning the tale of the perverted message that brings
death to mankind (Jurua-Purus).
The magical flight, though rare in South America, is attested for the
Mundurucu and the Carajd (Koch-Griinberg, 1927, pp. 203, 227).
Sharpened-Leg, the man who whittles down his leg and attacks his
companion with it, figures in Warrau and Carib lore (Roth, 1915, pp.
195 f.), as well as in Shipaya (Nimuendaju, 1921-22, p. 370) and Ge
tradition.
The ascent to the sky by an arrow-chain is related by the Guarayu in
the Madeira drainage (Koch-Griinberg, 1927, p. 283), as well as by the
Jivaro, Tupinamha, Cunmna, and Chiriguano. The division of people
in climbing from the sky to the earth or from the underworld to our
earth because of a stout individual blocking the passage is common to
the Warrau, Carajd, Mundurucu, and several tribes of the Montaiia. This
certainly recalls the North American Mandan-Hidatsa story of the preg-
nant woman breaking the vine that led from a cave to the upper world.
The North American thunderbird also turns up (Chiriguano).
Among more generic themes found within the area may be cited the
suitor's tests, the deluge, the destruction of the world by fire, and etiolog-
ical animal tales, the requisition of fire, and the Amazon women.
LORE AND LEARNING
Economic and technological pursuits involve considerable empirical
knowledge, which is likewise displayed in the sportive mimicry of the
animal dances. Intricately tied up with their practical occupations is
the Indians' star lore. In Guiana, at least, the year is divided not into
lunar months but into seasons defined, above all, by the regular suc-
cession of the stars and constellations in certain positions in the sky.
The Pleiades are of special importance, their rising from the east or
disappearing in the west marking the advent of the wet and dry seasons
and especially indicating the proper time to commence agricultural oper-
ations. The various stars are also associated with game, fish, and plants
in season. The year, in short, is determined by the reappearance of the
Pleiades and is subdivided according to the appearance of other con-
stellations, which are correlated with the abundance of economically sig-
nificant animals and plants. The rainy and the dry season bear
distinctive designations, and their advent is foretold by special observa-
tions — on the size of the young turtles, the croaking of the rain frog, etc.
To indicate the number of days before some such event as a feast, the
Guiana host (or party of the first part) sends to the guest (or partner)
a knotted string, of which he retains a replica. Each morning the two
56 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
men concerned untie one knot, the knotless cord being supposed to cor-
respond to the day of arrival. The Palicur substitute for the cord a
bundle of rods suspended from a reed, turning down both ends of each
stick every day (Nimuendaju, 1926, p. 94). This device strikingly
resembles North American Choctaw practice.
Distances are reckoned by the number of nights required for the
journey.
Remarkable geographical knowledge and cartographic skill are evi-
denced by the maps of the Taulipdng, who are accustomed to outline
their itinerary on the ground and to indicate the shapes of mountains
by an accumulation of sand. Native sketchers will recite the names of
rivers and their affluents in order, marking waterfalls, and defining the
appearance of peaks (Koch-Griinberg, 1923 b, pp. 90, 118; pis. 34, 35).
Similar maps, including an astronomical star chart, are made in the
Rio Negro region (Koch-Griinberg, 1921, pp. 160, 213). (Roth, 1924,
pp. 715-720; see also upper Xingu, p. 348.)
ETIQUETTE
A Taulipdng never enters a strange house unbidden, but remains
standing at the entrance until asked to enter. A speaker is never inter-
rupted; on official occasions a long oration is merely punctuated by
polite interjections on the auditor's part. In such situations neither
interlocutor looks at the other, both staring fixedly into space — a usage
rather common among South American tribes (Koch-Grunberg, 1923 b,
p. Ill f.). On the Caiari River, any one leaving on a specific errand,
such as going to hunt or farm or even to ease himself, announces the
fact to the other inmates, who encourage him to go about his business
(Koch-Grunberg, 1921, p. 280 f.).
Commonly men and women eat separately. Hands are carefully washed
before and after meals. At a party it is inadmissible to refuse a drink,
for such an act evokes suspicion.
The etiquette regulating kinship behavior and the procedures at cere-
monial situations have ,been considered under appropriate heads (Roth,
1924, pp. 235-239, 620-631).
The widespread weeping salutation also appears in this area {Guarani,
Yuruna).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Acuiia, 1641; Bates, 1863 (1892) ; Friederici, 1925; Gillin, 1936; Im Thurn, 1883;
Izikowitz, 1935; Karsten, 1935; Killip and Smith, 1931 ; Kirchhoflf, 1931, 1932; Koch-
Grunberg, 1906 a, 1921, 1923 a, 1923 b, 1927; Kruse, 1934; Linne, 1925; Mangelsdorf
and Reeves, 1939 ; Metraux, 1928 a, 1928 b ; Nimuendaju, 1914 c, 1919-20, 1921-22,
1926, 1930 b; Nordenskiold, 1912, 1917 c, 1919 a, 1920, 1922, 1924 a, 1924 b, 1930 a,
1930 c, 1931 b; Palmatary, 1939; Preuss, 1921, 1922; Roth, 1915, 1924; M. Schmidt,
1905, 1914, 1917; Setchell, 1921; Speiser, 1926; Spix and Martius, 1823-31; Stirling,
1938; Stolpe, 1927; Weeks, 1913 ; Whiffen, 1915.
Part 1. The Coastal and Amazonian Tupi
THE ARCHEOLOGY OF THE PARANA RIVER
By Fkancisco de Aparicio
INTRODUCTION
At the beginning of historic times various groups of native peoples
lived along the lower Parana River, from its confluence with the Paraguay
to the Delta. Some of these peoples were island dwellers and navigators ;
others lived along the banks of the river and were adapted to both a
riverine and terrestrial life. Still others were land hunters who, perhaps,
came only seasonally to the river to fish. The latter do not concern us
here, but the first two groups, the island peoples and those who lived
permanently along the Parana littoral are considered here as typical
inhabitants of the Parana.
GEOGRAPHICAL SETTING
At its confluence with the Paraguay, the Parana River turns south
to form the lower Parana. In this southward course its width varies
from 1 to 234 kilometers (^ to Ij^ miles) in the north and gradually
widens toward the south. The great volume of alluvium which the river
carries has resulted in the formation of numerous islands at the Delta
which are dissected by small streams. Ramirez, in referring to these
islands, said that : "There were so many that they could not be counted."
They are a characteristic feature of the Parana Delta landscape, and they
offered, in the past, exceptionally advantageous sites for the dwellings
of native peoples.
The banks of the Parana are quite irregular in appearance. The left
margin, from Corrientes to Diamante, where the formation of the Delta
begins, is in some places high and falls sharply to the river, forming
steep bluffs 30 meters (about 100 ft.) in height. At other places the
decline from the high ground to the river is more gradual. These
gradual slopes usually form the transitional terrain between the river and
the typical monte country of the region. The right margin of the Parana,
on the other hand, is low. A flooded zone, of 10 to 40 kilometers (about
6 to 25 miles) in width, borders the river down to the city of Santa Fe.
57
58 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
From there, to the confluence of the Carcarana, the Coronda subsidiary
defines the edge of the firm land that rises only a little above the ordinary
level of the waters. South of the Carcarana, the river bank rises to high
clififs ; and these highlands, in some places, continue inland for a short
distance. This same topography continues down the Plata to the vicinity
of Buenos Aires. The Indians occupied these highlands, and undoubtedly
it was on the heights that the conquistadors had their first contact with
the natives, as the flood plains were nearly always inaccessible.
The lower Parana has numerous left tributaries, the most voluminous
of which is the Ibera draining a large basin. The other tributaries flow
from the western watershed of the Argentine Mesopotamia. These
rivers were good locations for primitive communities, but archeological
evidence indicates that they were occupied only near their mouths. On
the right bank, the Parana receives two tributaries which were of great
significance in the life of the pre-Columbian populations. These are
the Salado, which crosses the country from the border of the Puna de
Atacama to Santa Fe, and the Carcarafia, which descends the Sierra de
Comechingones. According to the geographical information which the
Indians of Sancti Spiritu supplied to the explorer Cabot, it is evident
that these two rivers, and especially the Salado, must have served as
important routes of native commerce. Typical Parana cultures had, how-
ever, penetrated only a few kilometers up the Salado, and no remains
of the Parana type have ever been discovered on the Carcarafia. In the
northern part of the Province of Santa Fe, the rivers that run parallel
to the Parana before entering it duplicate its general environmental
conditions.
The Delta embraces approximately 200 kilometers (125 miles) of the
lower course of the Parana. This extremely low region is intersected
by a great number of streams, and it is subject to the tides of the Rio
de la Plata, which inundate it periodically. During these floods only
a few small, unusually high areas remain above the waters. On such
areas are found the remains of the indigenous peoples of the region.
The shores of the Parana are covered, for the most part, with monte
(shrub vegetation) of a Mesopotamian type. The abundance of the
flora varies considerably according to the latitude or to which river
bank is involved. A hydrophyllic vegetation thrives in the insular region
of the Delta, the most common species being the willow {Salix hum-
holtiana), the ceiba (Erythrina crista-galli) , and the yatay palm (Cocos
yatay), the last a conspicuous tree the fruit of which was used by the
Indians. In general, the insular landscape is characterized by swamp
and aquatic vegetation of extraordinary exhuberance.
The rich Parana flora afforded the Indian refuge and materials for
shelter, but it yielded no important food element. The fauna, however,
abundantly satisfied almost all the needs of the early inhabitants.
J
Plate 9. — Plastic representations from the Parana River country, a-c, Zoo-
morphic handles, Malabrigo; d, human-head handle, vicinity of city of Parana;
e-h, silhouette rim attachments; i, j, free representations of birds, (a and c,
Approximately yi actual size; b and d, approximately % actual size; e-h, approxi-
mately Ys actual size; i and.;, approximately }i actual size.) (Courtes}' Museo
Etnografico de la J^acultad de Filosofia y Letras, Buenos Aires.)
Plate 10. — Parana River area sherds, a-e, Incised lines with notched or punc-
tated interiors ("drag-and-jab" technique); /, g, sherds of the insular delta
complex. (Courtesy Museo Etnogrdfico de la Facultad de Filosofia y Letras,
Buenos Aires.)
Vol. 3] ARCHEOLOGY OF THE PARANA RIVER— APARICIO 59
ETHNOGRAPHIC CONSIDERATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
A brief analysis of the archeology of the Parana demonstrates three
distinct archeological complexes: two in the region of the Delta, and
a third which is found along both shores of the river above the Delta.
The accounts of the early European discoverers of this country indicate
that the Indians whom they encountered belonged to different tribes
or "nations." In interpreting the written sources by comparing them
with the archeological evidence, it becomes clear that there were three
outstanding aboriginal groups.
The first of these were the Querandi, who lived in the territory of
Sancti Spiritu: The "people of the country," as Ramirez called them.
Oviedo y Valdes (1851-55) says that they were inland dwellers, and
Sebastian Cabot {in Medina, 1908) affirms that their territory extended to
the foot of the mountains. They occasionally reached the coast, and
this explains why their name was given to the creek at whose mouth
the Portuguese explorer Lopes de Sousa set up two landmarks bearing
the coat of arms of his king. Later, Mendoza, according to Ulrich
Schmidel (1903), encountered the Querandi in the region where the Port
of Santa Maria de Buen Aire was situated. These Indians, in spite
of their presence on the coast, cannot be considered as typical inhabitants
of the Parana and are not treated in this paper. Undoubtedly, they did
not form a tribe, properly speaking, but were a band or a group who,
a little after the second founding of Buenos Aires, are no longer mentioned
but became confused with the other Indians of the plains and were in-
cluded under the general name of "Pampas."
The second important group were the Guarani, who inhabited some
of the islands and navigated the Parana, "because they were the enemies
of all the other nations," says Ramirez. The Guarani left behind ceme-
teries with urn burials and other types of characteristic remains. Finally,
the chroniclers mention a series of people who lived along the banks
of the river : Carcarai, Ghana, Begua, Ghana-Timbu, Timbu, Mocoretai,
Gamarao, Mepene. All of these peoples were, evidently, small bands
belonging to a larger group, the third major group of the area. The
archeological evidence found along the shores of the Parana verifies
the testimony of the conquistadors who, although they gave many
names to these people, left no doubt that culturally they were funda-
mentally uniform. To these people can be assigned the dominant archeo-
logical complex of the Parana, characterized by the ceramic representa-
tions and accompanying other remains (Aparicio, 192&-29).
The sites, other than those of the Guarani, which have been found on
the "cerritos" (small elevations) of the Delta cannot yet be assigned to
any of the people mentioned in the early literature. All that is known
of these people is confined to the archeological materials themselves.
These materials differ both from the Parana complex of the ceramic
653333—47—7
60 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
plastic representations and from those of the Guarani sites. It is very
possible that when the remains from some of the sites of the right margin
of the Rio de la Plata are better known that these will prove to have
a close relationship with those from the Delta "cerritos."
HISTORY OF ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS
The excavation of the "Tumulo Prehistorico de Campana," made around
1877 by Don Estanislao S. Zeballos and Pedro P. Pico (1878), began
archeological research along the Parana and was also the first systematic
investigation of an Argentine archeological site. Several years later, in
1893-94, Ambrosetti found fragments of decorated pottery in Entre Rios
and a handsome collection of plastic representations in pottery from the
site of Goya. Further field work was not attempted along the Parana
littoral until Frenguelli and the present author discovered important
sites on the Malabrigo River. Other minor discoveries were also made
by Frenguelli, by the author, and by Antonio Serrano.
The Delta of the Parana is known from the works of L. M. Torres
(1913) and from the recent excavations of the North American, Samuel
K. Lothrop.
The bibliography relative to Parana archeology includes important
works of other authors — Ameghino, Lafone Quevedo, Outes, and Torres.
These are, however, monographic treatments of selected themes and are
based upon rapid exploratory trips, occasional discoveries, or library
research. The present brief synthesis is based, for the most part, upon
the personal investigations carried out in the lower Parana region by
the author. These investigations are only partly published.
ARCHEOLOGICAL SITES
SITES ALONG THE PARANA
Campana and Goya are the classic sites of the Parana littoral. The
first was studied with surprising care for the period in which the excava-
tions were made (1877). The investigators stated, with regard to the
nature of the mound:
We established o priori that this monument was a tumulus similar to those found
in the different territories of Europe and the Americas. Its material consists of
decayed vegetal substances and Quaternary deposits. Taking the form of an ellipse,
its major diameter measures 79 varas [approximately 220 feet, or 70 m.] ; the lesser
diameter was 32 varas [approximately 90 ft., or 30 m.] ; and its greatest height was
2J/2 varas [approximately 7 ft., or 2.2 m.] above the surrounding ground. [Zeballos
and Pico, 1878.]
Zeballos defined the mound, on the basis of its general appearance,
as a tumulus comparable to the earth monuments of other continents.
At about the same time, some similar sites had been discovered by re-
Vol. 3] ARCHEOLOGY OF THE PARANA RIVER— APARICIO 61
liable amateurs in the lowlands of southern Entre Rios. The coincidence
of these discoveries was commented upon by Ameghino, shortly after
this, leading to the supposition of the existence of a culture or "a people
of the tumuli."
At Goya, Ambrosetti made very rapid and superficial observations,
and his descriptions do not give a clear idea of the conditions under
which he discovered the material which he describes. However, judging
from investigations in many other sites along the Parana, it is evident
that Ambrosetti was investigating a site quite typical of the region. These
sites are always found on the banks of the river or of its tributaries,
and are situated on high ground above the zone of inundations. The
cultural remains are always found at a very slight depth, immediately
below the humus. They consist of potsherds, apparently scattered in-
tentionally, hearths, remains of food, and human bones coming from
secondary inhumations. The writer has noted sites of this type in Cor-
rientes, in the vicinity of the city of Parana, near Diamante and Victoria,
in Gaboto and other places along the right bank of the Coronda, and
in various localities north of the city of Santa Fe. A site of the same
type, but located on low ground in the insular region, is Las Tejas, ex-
plored by Antonio Serrano, in the vicinity of the Lake of Coronda.
The better-known sites of the Parana are, however, those of the right
bank of the Malabrigo River. They are located upon a series of hills
that extend a short distance from the edge of the river. Frenguelli
remarks that, taking into account the "characteristic alignment [of these
hills] upon the edge of a fluvial valley, and the nature and homogeneity
of the materials that compose them," they must be interpreted "as ancient
aeolian accumulations [sand dunes] more or less affected by later weather
action, that shaped them in the form of hills, which are likely places,
in these regions, for the refuge of indigenous populations" (Frenguelli
and Aparicio, 1923). In all of the mounds explored, artifacts and human
skeletal remains have been found at only a very slight depth in the sand.
SITES OF THE DELTA
In the insular region and the bordering lowlands of the Delta, a country
subjected to periodic flooding or tidal action of the estuary of the Rio
de la Plata, locations of aboriginal dwellings were limited to only a few
elevated places, which are referred to today as "cerritos," or little hills.
In them are found cultural refuse and human burials. Because of their
appearance, as small mounds rising above the surrounding lowlands, these
"cerritos" have been considered by some authorities, especially Torres,
as true tumuli that were deliberately constructed by man. However,
Lothrop, who has explored one of these "mounds," believes that their
artificial elevation is the inadvertent accumulation of detritus left by
62 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
human occupation. Outes, who explored a site of this type in Mazaruca,
also tends to this latter view:
Mazaruca, as with the great majority of the other burial places in more or less
isolated elevations, is a relatively consolidated sand dune. Some of these dunes are
covered by a cap of humus, deep enough to be considered the product of the slow
transformation of the coarse quartz sand which forms the underlying material of
the dune, and to which has been added continuously detritus carried by floods and
the decomposed organic matter from the rank vegetation that covers the surface
ot the marsh. [Outes, 1912.]
The author has had occasion to investigate a similar site in "La Argen-
tina," in the region of Mazaruca, and concurs with Outes ( Aparicio, 1928) .
It is unfortunate that a comprehensive study of the geological nature of
the "cerritos" has not yet been made.
CULTURAL REMAINS
THE PARANA LITTORAL
Plastic representations. — The sites along the shores of the Parana
are characterized by modeled pottery figures or plastic representations,
with which are associated quantities of potsherds, plain, incised, and,
in a few cases, painted. By and large, however, the materials, which
are almost exclusively ceramics, are of rather poor quality and of
monotonous uniformity.
All of the plastic representations are hand-made, and knowledge of
molds was lacking. All of the figures conform to a definite art style
which distinguishes them from comparable pottery representations found
in other American areas.^ The native artists of the Parana interpreted
the regional fauna with surprising talent and sensibility. They were
sometimes able to reproduce nature with a masterly realism; in other
instances, they modified the form until they achieved stylizations of a
disconcerting audacity. Both types of depiction are usually complemented
by incised decoration which is purely geometric and in no sense zoomor-
phic characterizations.
The plastic representations, in some cases, were adornos on pottery
vessels, serving either as handles or simply as added ornaments. The
figure handles are bulky and are attached to the vessel walls ; the purely
decorative adornos are silhouette forms which appear to have been added
to the rims as an extention of the vessel wall. In both cases, the figures
have the same paste, firing, finish, etc., as the vessels of which they form
a part.
^ Attention has often been called to the analogies existing between the plastic representations of
the Parand and of the Amazon and other regions of the continent. Nordenskiold in studying this
problem contrasted a series of schematic drawings. As in such schemes, the sculptures have lost
all stylistic quality, and the resemblances of one with the other are therefore surprising. However,
anyone who has seen an appreciable quantity of plastic representations of the Parand and of the
Amazon, and who has some artistic sensibility, would not hesitate to declare the analogy to be of
theme and not of style.
Vol. 3] AECHEOLOGY OF THE PARANA RIVER— APARICIO 63
The function of the separate or free figures can only be conjectured.
They differ from the attached figures in being larger and usually solid
rather than hollow, as is the case with the latter.
At the sites of Malabrigo, Resistencia, Campana, and Goya, the figures
are almost exclusively of the attached type. In sites of the river country
of Santa Fe, between San Jose del Rincon and Gaboto, and in those
along the banks of the Parana between the city of Parana and the Delta
(such as Las Tejas), the free figures have been found in greater
abundance. As there is a fairly adequate bibliography upon this subject,
only a few typical examples of the plastic representations will be illustrated
and discussed here. Plate 9, a, a handle figure from Malabrigo, is a
magnificent example of interpretative realism. Although executed in
a slovenly manner and free of all technical preoccupation, it unites sur-
prising elements of expression and life. The beak is exaggerated in its
dimensions but faithfully portrayed ; the fierce expression of the eye and
the tufted crest give the head a singular dynamism and exceptional vitality.
The decorations of the piece have been executed with a marked lack of
prolixity. They consist simply of a series of parallel rows of punctations
that run perpendicular to the tufted crest and cover both sides of the
face. Below, and at the sides of the beak, this simple ornamental feature
is repeated in smaller size. Another handle representation from Mal-
abrigo (pi. 9, h) is a good example of extreme stylization. Although
this head has the same general characteristics as the last, the artist's
intent was obviously different. His interest was not in achieving sincere
realism, but in producing a graceful and elegant formalism, which he
accomplished with admirable simplicity by portraying a beak of dispro-
portionate size and a long undulant crest which extends down the back
of the head. The crest plays an important decorative role, complementing
two grooved projections at the sides of the head. Ornamentation is
limited to some parallel zigzag lines. This particular specimen is almost
completely covered with red ocher.
The great parrots were the preferred subjects of the native sculptors
of the Parana littoral, and representations of them constitute an over-
whelming majority of known specimens. Other birds and animals were
also portrayed. Plate 9, c, another handle specimen from Malabrigo,
is a beautiful example of an owl. The artist has retained only features
necessary to the characterization: Eyes, "horns," and beak. He has
represented them with great ease and assurance.
The artists made human representations much less often than animals,
and with less success. An example of accentuated human realism is the
little head (pi. 9, d) from the vicinity of the city of Parana.
No intact vessel has yet been discovered with two figure handles attached,
but the great number of rim sherds with such attachments leaves little
64 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.B. Bull. 143
doubt that such handles were used on vessels, e. g., figure 4, a nearly
complete specimen from Las Tejas, Santa Fe. The handles on this piece
are of an exceptional type, as the zoomorphic figure has been depicted
as an entire body rather than by the usual practice of simply showing
it as a head (Aparicio, 1925).
Figure 4. — Parana River vessel v;rith zoomorphic handles. (Courtesy Museo Etno-
gralico de la Facultad de Filosofia y Letras, Buenos Aires.)
The silhouette rim attachments which the author first discovered and
published some years ago, are definitely in the artistic style of the Parana
plastic representations (pi. 9, e-h). The silhouettes have been made by
cutting out the outline of the animal which is being represented from a flat piece of
clay. The surfaces of the figures are then treated somewhat in the manner of relief
sculpture, in some cases to augment the characterization intended, and in others
simply to decorate the figures. [Aparicio, 1923.]
Various examples of separate or free representations, either complete
or fragmentary, have been examined by the author. Plate 9, i, can be
considered typical. Artistically, it is contemptible. The heavy modeled
parrot is scarcely recognizable. The head reproduced in plate 9, /, though
of unusual beauty, is no doubt a similar piece. Although the subject
has been drastically conventionalized, the essential characteristics — beak,
crest, and throat — enable one to recognize it immediately as a royal condor.
The head is covered with incised decoration, which, as usual, is discon-
nected and seems to lack design plan.
Pottery. — Plastic representations are always found in association with
plain, incised, and painted potsherds. Some instances of combined paint-
ing and incision have also been noted. Various ornamental combinations
have been made with incised lines, but these have not yet been system-
atically analyzed. These decorative combinations show some similarity
to comparable pottery decorations from other primitive cultures. How-
ever, the exact nature of these incised decorations, and the manner in
Vol. 3] ARCHEOLOGY OF THE PARANA RIVER— APARICIO 65
which they have been executed, is characteristic of the Parana littoral.
Incision was made in the soft paste by a small pointed instrument which
effected a series of successive impressions, or a groove with a notched
interior. These notched grooved lines ("drag-and-jab") vary consider-
ably, depending upon the size and shape of the instrument used. Plate
10, a-e, shows a random selection of such sherds. At a glance one can
see the identity of the pottery decorations with those found on the plastic
representations.
In addition, pottery decorated with incised lines and separate puncta-
tions is not lacking. Pottery may also have the most elementary sort of
decorative treatment: fingernail impressions and finger-and-fingernail
impressions in various combinations. These latter types are, nevertheless,
in the minority, and they cannot be considered as typical manifestations of
the culture. (See concluding section of Guarani influences.)
The people of the Parana littoral apparently had the custom of inten-
tionally destroying their pottery and other ceramic artifacts. Because of
this, very few complete specimens are now extant. The sherds, however,
reveal that there were various vessel forms, some small and carefully
made, others large, coarse, and without decoration. There is only one
good example of a vessel of the finer ware; but there are, perhaps, a
dozen of the large coarse vessels. These latter are usually subglobular in
shape. All complete vessels have been brought together in a special
monograph (Iribarne, 1937).
Miscellaneous ceramic objects. — Exceptionally, in some sites, pipes,
pendants, and spindle whorls have been found.
Nonceramic objects. — Artifacts of stone or bone are extremely scarce.
In Malabrigo, the stone industry can be considered nonexistent ; in Goya,
four worked stone artifacts and several bolas were found; in Campana,
Zeballos and Pico mention the finding of 1 50 pieces of worked and polished
stone. Unfortunately, this last material was lost and there is no descrip-
tion available. However, the exceptional lithic representation at Campana
can be satisfactorily explained if it is realized that the site lies on the
periphery of the Parana littoral culture. This stone artifact complex was
probably the result of contact with neighboring peoples.
Bone artifacts are similar to stone artifacts in their occurrence. Their
presence at Campana, again, must be explained by the geographical loca-
tion of the site.
THE PARANA DELTA
The Delta culture of the "cerritos." — Although the general aspect of
the Delta sites is more or less uniform, the contents of these sites is
variable. Some sites contain urn burials accompanied by a very charac-
teristic artifact complex. Other sites have direct inhumations accompanied
by unspecialized ceramics and bone artifacts. The latter correspond to
66 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.B. Bull. 143
sites already mentioned, with the exception of Arroyo Malo explored by
Lothrop (1932).
The sites with the direct inhumations and the nondistinctive archeo-
logical content, represent the insular culture of the "cerritos," presumably
the remains of the ancient occupants of the Delta. In addition to being
little specialized, and lacking in definitive characteristics, the pottery and
artifacts from the "cerritos" are very scarce. Skeletal remains, on the
other hand, are quite abundant. The potsherds that have been found
show very simple line and punctate combinations. They differ, signifi-
cantly, from those attributed to the peoples of the Guaycuru family, and,
even more strikingly, from the well-known Guarani ceramics. In plate
10, /, g, are shown sherds from the sites of the insular Delta complex.
(Cf. with pi. 10, a-e.)
A stone industry is very poorly represented in these Delta sites. Those
artifacts found probably were trade pieces received from neighboring
peoples. Artifacts of bone and horn, such as awls, punches, and points,
although not highly specialized or differentiated, are the most typical.
Guarani influences. — Various sites of the Delta are characterized by
great funerary urns. Despite the fact that investigations at only one such
site have been fully published (Lothrop, 1932, Arroyo Malo), the artifact
complex associated with this culture of the urn burials is well known and
is attributed to the Guarani peoples. The distribution of Guarani finds
is very extensive, allowing comparisons with similar discoveries made in
relatively remote regions, such as the upper Parana and the upper Para-
guay Rivers. In addition, they are also found throughout the entire
geographical area to which we have been referring in this paper. Some-
times these Gwarawf-type finds are found by themselves ; in other instances
they are found as intrusions into archeological strata of other cultures.
The Guarani funerary urns have peculiar forms. The surfaces are
plain or fingernail marked, or, more rarely, they are completely or par-
tially painted with polychrome decorations (fig. 5; pis. 11, 12). Frag-
ments of pottery are also found in association with the burial urns. These
suggest vessels of different forms and uses which have been decorated in
a similar manner to the funerary vessels.
There are also typical stone artifacts in association with the above
pottery. These are polished axes and lip plugs of various forms.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ambrosetti, 1893, 1894 ; Ameghino, 1880-81 ; Aparicio, 1923, 1925, 1928, 1928-1929 ;
Cabot {in Medina, 1908); Frenguelli and Aparicio, 1923; Iribarne, 1937; Lafone-
Quevedo, 1909; Lothrop, 1932; Outes, 1912; Oviedo y Valdes, 1851-55; Schmidel,
1903 ; Torres, L. M., 1913 ; Zeballos and Pico, 1878.
THE ARCHEOLOGY OF THE PARANA RIVER
67
Figure S.—Guarani pottery from the Parana Delta. Top: Painted, fingernail-marked,
and plain wares. Bottom: Painted urn (height, 18 inches (44.5 cm.)). (Courtesy
Museo Etnografico de la FacuUad de Filosofia y Letras, Buenos Aires; and after
Lothrop, 1932, pi. 10.)
6S3333— 47— 8
THE GUARANI
By Alfred Metraux
TRIBAL DIVISIONS
The area inhabited by the Guarani (map 1, No. 1 ; see Volume 1,
map 7) has shrunk considerably since the 16th century. Today the
Guarani who have preserved their cultural identity form isolated islands
in Paraguay and southern Brazil. The subtribes mentioned by Spanish
conquistadors and missionaries have disappeared, and the names which
designate modern Guarani groups are fairly recent and appear in the
literature only in the 18th century. Therefore, it is necessary to deal
with ancient and modern Guarani as if they were separate entities. The
Guarani language, however, is still spoken by Mestizos, or acculturated
Indians, in most of the territory where it was used at the time of the
Conquest. The rural population of Paraguay is often called Guarani.
Therefore, in order to avoid confusion between these modern civilized
Guarani and their primitive contemporaries, we shall always refer to
the latter as Caingud.
Guarani of the 16th and 17th centuries. — The Guarani were first
known as Carijo or Carlo, but the name Guarani finally prevailed in the
17th century. At this time, the Guarani were the masters of the Atlantic
Coast from Barra de Cananea to Rio Grande do Sul, (lat. 26°-33° S.,
long. 48°-52° W.) and from there their groups extended to the Parana,
Uruguay, and Paraguay Rivers.
Guarani groups, called by the early chroniclers "Guarani de las islas,"
Chandris, or Chandules, lived in the 16th century on the islands of the
Rio de la Plata, and on the southern side of the Parana Delta from San
Isidro to the vicinity of the Carcarana River (lat. 34° S., long. 58° W.)
There were some Guarani enclaves along the Uruguayan shore, at Martin
Chico, and from San Lazaro to San Salvador. Pottery vessels of un-
mistakable Guarani origin have been found near San Francisco Soriano
and Concordia in Uruguay, on the island of Martin Garcia and at Arroyo
Malo, between the Lujan River and the Parana de las Palmas River.
On the eastern side of the Uruguay River, the borderline between the
Charrua and the bulk of the Guarani nation ran near Yapeyu. On the
69
70 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
western side, the Guarani occupied all the land from Yapeyii to the
Parana River (Serrano, 1936, p. 121). From the junction of the
Parana and Paraguay Rivers, Guarani villages were distributed con-
tinuously up the eastern side of the Paraguay River and up both sides
of the Parana River. They reached north to the Mbotetey (Miranda)
River (lat. 20° S.,), and east probably to the Serras de Amambay and
Maracayu. The Guarani were especially numerous in the Parana Basin
and in the Province of Guaira. There were also countless settlements
along the tributaries of the Parana River, the boundary between the
Tupinakin and Guarani being approximately the Tiete River. The
Guarani extended south to the Province of Tape (today, Serra Geral).
Although Guarani was the generic name of this widespread people,
the Spaniards in the 16th and 17th centuries distinguished local tribes
by special names. Around Lagoa dos Patos, the Guarani were called
Arechane (lat. 32° S., long. 51° W.) ; from the Apa River to the Mbotetey
(Miranda) River, Itatin (lat. 22° S., long. 57° W.) ; in the Serra Geral
and Rio Grande do Sul, Tape (lat. 30° S., long. 52° W.) ; around San
Estanislao and San Joaquin, Tobatin; on the Ypane River, Guarambare
(lat. 23° S., long. 56° W.) ; and on the Ivahy (Ivahyete) River, Taioba.
Tribes with a different language and culture, such as the Caingang, or
with a diflferent culture, such as the Guayaki, were scattered among the
Guarani.
In the second half of the 17th century, the Northern Guarani or Itatin,
were driven south by the Mbayd-Guaicuru, a Chaco tribe.
Modern Guarani tribes. — Since the 18th century, the Guarani groups
who had remained independent and had not been collected in missions
have been distinguished from the Christianized Guarani by the name
Caingud {Kaa-thwua, Kaingua, Cayua, Monteses), which means "In-
habitants of the Forest."
About 1800, the Caingud {Caagua) inhabited the headwaters of the
Iguatemi River, extending north toward the upper Miranda River to
Cerro Pyta in the Cordillera de San Jose near the headwaters of the
Ypane River. They also lived near the Jejui-guazii (Jejui) and the
Aguaray-guazii Rivers and in the vicinity of the cities of Curuguaty,
San Joaquin, and San Estanislao (Azara, 1904, p. 407).
The Caingud proper lived on the Ypane River, the Carima in the Serra
Maracayu (lat. 23° S., long. 54° W.), and the Taruma east of the Yhu
River (lat. 24° S., long. 56° W.).
The Indians who at the end of the 18th century lived on the right
side of the Parana River between the Guarapay and Monday Rivers
and on the left side of the Parana River from Corpus to the Iguassu
River, were known as Guayana (lat. 26° S., long. 56° W.). A group of
these Guayana still exists at Villa Azara on the stream Pira-pyta. These
Guarani-s^eakmg Guayand should not be confused with the ancient
Vol. 3] THE GUARANI— METRAUX 71
Guayand of Sao Paulo and Parana, who were Caingang Indians (Azara,
1904, p. 406).
Modern Caingud (Caaigud) are divided into three groups:
(1) The Mbyd (Mbwiha, Ava-mbihd, Caaygud, Apytere, Baticola),
who occupy the forested spurs of the Serra de Maracayu (lat. 25° -27°
S., long. 55° W.) and the region around Corpus in the Argentine terri-
tory of Misiones. Groups of Mbyd (or Caingud) are even more widely
scattered in Mato Grosso and in the States of Parana and Rio Grande
do Sul.
(2) The Chiripd, who live south of the Jejua-guazu River and are
also reported on the right and left sides of the upper Parana River, along
the Yuytorocai River and north of the Iguassu River (lat. 25° S., long.
54°-56° W.).
(3) The Pan' (Terenohe), who live north of the Jejui-guazii River.
Of these three groups, the Mbyd have remained the closest to their
ancient Guarani culture; the Chiripd are the most acculturated.
There are also several groups of Caingud or Guarani in Brazil. The
Apapocuva (lat. 24° S., long. 54° W.) regard themselves as distinct from
the Paraguayan Caingud although they are closely related to them. Before
they started in 1870 trekking east in search of the Land-Without-Evil
(see below, p. 93), they lived on the lower Iguatemi River, in the
southern tip of the State of Mato Grosso. In 1912, 200 still lived on
the Iguatemi River ; about 200 in the reservation of Arariba, in the State
of Sao Paulo ; 100 on the Rio das Cinzas, in the State of Parana ; about
70 in Potrero Guazu, in Mato Grosso; and about 40 at the mouth of
the Ivahi River. The Tanygud, who also made this trek, resided on
the Parana River near the Iguatemi River (lat. 23° S., long. 54° W.).
After a long migration which took them to the Atlantic Coast, they became
established on the Rio de Peixe and the Itariry River, where a few of
them still remained in 1912.
The ancient habitat of the Oguauiva, from which they migrated toward
the Ocean in 1830, was situated near the Serra de Maracayu (lat. 24°
S., long 54° W.). In 1912, 100 Oguauiva lived in the reservation of
Arariba, and 40 near the coast.
The other Caingud groups who, according to Nimuendajii (1914 a,
p. 293), lived in southern Brazil about 1912 were: The Cheiru/ near
the mouth of the Iguatemi ; the Avahuguai, on the Dourados ; the Paiguagu,
on the Curupayna River (Mato Grosso) ; the Yvytyigud, opposite the
Serra do Diabo, in the State of Parana ; the Avachiripd, on the left side
of the Parana (State of Parana) ; the Catanduva Jatahy, in the same State.
The Apapocuva, Tanygud, Oguauiva, and Cheiru are regarded as
Guarani whereas the Avahuguai, Paiguagu, Yvytyigud, Avachiripd, and
' There are also Cheiru in Paraguay near the Guaira Falls.
72 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
Catanduvd are designated in Brazil under the generic term of Caiud
(Kaygud).
The Ivapare {Are, Shetd), erroneously called Botocudo or Notoboto-
ciido because of their wooden labrets, are a Gwamm'-speaking group living
on the Ivahy River, near the Ranharanha (Ariranha) Cachoeira (lat. 24°
S., long. 53° W.). These Indians have abandoned farming, and roam in
the forests like the Guayaki (Borba, 1904, Loukotka, 1929).
At present most of the Caingud groups are in constant contact with the
Mestizos and Whites, and many Caingud work as peons in the estancias,
in the mate or lumber camps. With the earned money they buy clothes,
tools, food, pots, sugar, and salt. Consequently, they have abandoned
weaving and even their native ware. On the other hand, they still culti-
vate the same plants as their ancestors.
Population. — Nimuendaju (1914 a, p. 293) estimated in 1912 the total
number of the Brazilian Caingud at about 3,000.
Sources. — Information on the ancient Guarani is scanty and fragmen-
tary, but can be supplemented by our better knowledge of their descend-
ants, the numerous Caingud tribes of Paraguay and southern Brazil.
Moreover, from all available evidence, ancient Guarani culture appears to
be basically like that of their neighbors and kinsmen, the coastal Tupi.
Most of the data on the ancient Guarani used in this chapter come from
the "Comentarios de Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca" (see Pedro Her-
nandez, 1852), Schmidel (1903), Ruiz de Montoya's (1892) "Conquista
espiritual," and the "Cartas anuas de la Compania de Jesus" (1927-29).
Del Techo (1673, 1897) and Lozano (1873-75), who often have been
regarded among our best authorities on the Guarani, obtained most of
their data from Jesuit reports (Cartas anuas).
The earUest description of the Caingud appears in Dobrizhoffer (1874).
Azara's (1809, 1904) often-quoted passages on the Guarani should be
used with caution. Rengger (1835) in the beginning of the 19th century
and Vogt (1904), Ambrosetti (1895 b), and Vellard (1939 a) in recent
times have contributed good information on the material culture of the
Paraguayan Caingud. On the Cayud of Southern Brazil, we have a
monograph by Von Koenigswald (1908). The outstanding sources on
the modern Guarani, or Caingud, are a monograph by Nimuendaju (1914
a) on the religion and mythology of the Apapocuva-Guarani, and a series
of studies by Father Franz Miiller (1934-35) on the Paraguayan Caingud.
Pablo Hernandez's (1913) monumental work is the most complete
modern source on the history and organization of the Jesuit missions.
Cardiel's (1900) "Declaracion de la verdad" and Muratori's (1754)
"Nouvelles des missions du Paraguay" are excellent 18th-century treatises
on life in the missions.
Vol. 3] THE GUARANI— METRAUX 73
ARCHEOLOGY OF THE GUARANI AREA
Many archeological finds have been made in the area formerly inhabited
by the Guarani, but only a few systematic investigations have ever been
undertaken of ancient sites or cemeteries. The attribution of some of the
remains unearthed in former Guarani territory is often uncertain because
the Guarani seem to have been late comers in the regions where we find
them in the 16th century. They were preceded by people of different
prehistoric cultures, some of which, such as the Caingang, have survived
up to the present. The main problems center around classification of
stone implements, which cannot always be easily distinguished from those
produced by the early non-Guarani population. Pottery, however, leaves
little or no margin for doubt. The aboriginal occupants of Paraguay or
southern Brazil had either no ceramics or else only a very crude ware.
Guarani ware presents the following features: A corrugated decoration
produced by thumb impressions on the soft clay, linear designs in red
and black on a whitish background, and the use of large conical chicha
jars as funeral urns (pis. 11, 12).
There is a striking resemblance between the pottery of the ancient
Tupinamha of the coast (Netto, 1885; Ihering, 1904) and that of the
Guarani of Paraguay. The modern Chiriguano, descendants of Guarani
invaders from Paraguay, still make chicha jars almost identical in shape
and decoration to those which are so often unearthed in their home country.
Moreover, typical Guarani vases have been found associated with rosin
labrets, a lip ornament still worn by modern Caingud.
Direct, or primary, urn burial was the usual form of interment among
the Guarani and persists among the Chiriguano of Bolivia. Archeology
has amply confirmed the statements of early writers. The corpse was
forced with the limbs flexed into a jar and covered with another vessel.
Ihering (1895, 1904), Mayntzhusen (1912), Ullrich (1906), Kunert
(1890, 1891, 1892), Kunike (1911), Meyer (1896), Ambrosetti (1895 b),
Vellard (1934), and Linne (1936) have described isolated finds. Max
Schmidt (1932) has given a list of recent discoveries and has attempted
to make a classification of the rich archeological material in the Museum
of Asuncion. Pottery of unmistakable Guarani origin has been collected
on the islands of the Parana Delta (pi. 11, fop, center). They have been
pubhshed and discussed by L. M. Torres (1913) and Outes (1917, 1918).
Lothrop (1932, pp. 122-146) has given us a careful description of the
results of his investigation in a Guarani cemetery at Arroyo Malo, a small
tributary of the Lujan River, east of El Tigre, in the Province of Buenos
Aires. Serrano (1936) has dealt with Guarani archeology in connection
with his study of the ancient native cultures of Uruguay.
The ware found in areas historically occupied by Guarani tribes con-
sists mainly of funeral urns, large plates or vessels used as lids for these
urns, and some pots which formed part of the funerary equipment.
74 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
Funeral urns, which originally were chicha jars, are of two main types :
(1) those decorated on the upper part with rows of corrugated impres-
sions or markings produced either with the fingers or with a stick, and
(2) painted ones.
The urns of the first category usually have a conical shape with a
bulging upper part and a low outflaring or direct rim (pi. 11, bottom,
lejt). Those of the second type are usually biconical with a flat or
rounded bottom and a direct rim which often presents a median ridge
(pi. 12, a). The height of the urns normally varies between 40 to 70 cm.
(16 to 28 in.) and their diameter between 46 to 76 cm. (19 to 50 in.).
A few specimens are one meter (3 ft.) high.
Smaller vessels are (1) undecorated, (2) covered on their entire outer
surface by fingernail marks (pi. 11), (3) painted (pi. 12), and (4)
painted on the inside and decorated with fingernail marks or corrugated
impressions on the outside.
Several nail-incised vessels were found by Ambrosetti (1895 b) on
the Alto Parana and by Lothrop (1932, pp. 134-135) at Arroyo Malo,
near Buenos Aires, and at Parana-Guazii.
Most of the specimens of small ware known up to the present are
shallow bowls, or bowls with inverted rims. Some painted specimens
have a characteristic biconical shape with a flat bottom. A few globular
pots with outflaring rims seem to have been used in cooking. A single
specimen with a tubular neck has been published by Vellard (1934, fig.
8,5).
Some of the funeral urns and wide bowls found by Lothrop at Arroyo
Malo are covered with a grayish slip and are adorned with red paint on
the exterior.
The decoration of the polychrome urns and bowls consists generally of
red lines on a whitish background, but sometimes white patterns have
been traced on a red background. Often the red designs are underscored
by black strokes or bordered by incisions. On a few specimens coarse
red patterns have been applied directly on the surface of the vessel. The
motifs are always geometrical. They may be described as sigmoid curves,
labyrinths, Greek frets, and elaborations of the chevron. A few vessels
are decorated with plain red bands on a white background.
Many urns show on their lower portions striations resulting from the
use of corn husks in the smoothing process.
Guarani vessels are, as a rule, without handles, though, according to
Mayntzhusen (1912, p. 465), they may occur in a few instances. Some
vessels were suspended through holes in the rim or through lateral
prominences.
At Arroyo Malo were found some clay "hemispheres," or lumps
decorated with incised patterns. Lothrop (1932, p. 143) calls them fire
Vol. 3] THE GUARANI— METRAUX 75
dogs, that is to say, supports for pots, a hypothesis completely unconfirmed.
No object of that type has been found in any other Guarani region.
A fragment of a double vessel found at Arroyo Malo suggests a type
of bowl used by the Chiriguano, though these modern vessels are obviously
copied after European yerba mate containers. An effigy vessel collected
at Arroyo Malo is definitely alien to Guarani culture as known through
archeology.
Crude stone drills, knives, hammers, and arrow-shaft polishers are
listed by Mayntzhusen (1912, p. 463) among the stone objects he picked
up from refuse heaps on the upper Parana River. He also mentions
quartz lip plugs. Simple neolithic stone axes without any groove have
been found in Guarani sites of the upper Parana River, on the island
of Martin Garcia, and at Arroyo Malo. Lothrop (1932, p. 145) describes
two fragmentary bolas from Arroyo Malo. One is well made with a
broad groove ; the other is roughly shaped with a narrow groove. Outes
(1917, fig. 28) figures also a grooved bola obtained at Martin Garcia.
The bola was not a Guarani weapon and its use seems to have been limited
to the Guarani of the Delta.
Hammerstones, roughly shaped by abrasion and including some pitted
ones, have come to light in the excavations of Arroyo Malo.
The bone artifacts which Mayntzhusen claims to have collected on
ancient sites of the Parana River include needles, weaver daggers,
spatulae, fishhooks, and flutes. He also discovered perforated shell disks
and some human or animal teeth which were parts of a necklace.
THE CONQUEST
No mineral wealth has ever been exploited in Paraguay, but metal
objects found among the aborigenes of this country in the 16th century
brought about the conquest of the entire basin of the Rio de la Plata.
The gold and silver, which members of the Solis expedition obtained
from the Guarani and other Indians of this region, had come originally
from the Inca Empire. At the end of the 15th century, probably
under the reign of Inca Yupanqui, bands of Guarani had crossed the
Chaco to raid the peaceful Chane along the Inca frontier and even attacked
tribes directly under Inca rule. Some of these Guarani bands settled in
the conquered territories; others returned loaded with loot. Groups,
small and large, followed the first invaders and renewed their assaults
against the "people of the metal." The number of metal objects which
reached Paraguay and the Rio de la Plata in this manner must have
been considerable for, from the beginning of the Conquest, regions which
actually had nothing to entice the Spaniards were the object of their
most violent covetousness. These regions became the gateway to
El Dorado.
The first positive information on the "Sierra de la Plata" or "Tierra
76 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
rica" was obtained by Alejo Garcia, who, with a few other white men,
joined a Guarani raid against the Inca border. He wrote of his discovery
to his companions who had remained in Santa Catarina. When Sebastian
Cabot landed at Pernambuco in 1526, he had been told of gold and silver
in the region of the Rio de la Plata. Later, in Santa Catarina he obtained
more detailed information from Alejo Garcia's companions and heard
that "near the sierra there was a white king, dressed like a Spaniard,"
and that Garcia and his companions had seen mines and had spoken
with the Indians who lived near the sierra and "wore silver crowns on
their heads and gold plates hanging from their necks and ears and at-
tached around their belts." With his letter, Garcia had sent specimens
of the metal. Convinced that they had reached El Dorado, Sebastian
Cabot abandoned his intended journey to the East Indies and decided
to ascend the Rio de la Plata, where he was assured he could "load a ship
with gold and silver." Cabot sailed the Parana and then the Paraguay
River to its junction with the Pilcomayo River. Ramirez, in his famous
letter recounting the Cabot expedition, says that, "the Guarani Indians
of the region of Santa Ana wear many ear pendants and pendants of
gold and silver," and that a brigantine's crew saw the same things some-
what upstream. Through an interpreter, the Spaniards learned that the
Chandule, who were Indians of the same tribe living 180 miles (60
leagues) up the Paraguay River, "traded gold to the Guarani for beads
and canoes." The Chandule, who were probably the Guarani of the region
of Itati, had much metal, "according to the Indians, because women and
children went from their settlements to the mountain and brought back
the aforesaid metal" (Ramirez in Medina, J. T., 1908, p. 456).
The Cabot expedition was a failure, but the reports about the Sierra
de la Plata, the Caracara Indians (i.e., the Quechua Indians of Charcas),
and the silver and gold of the Guarani were avidly received by the
Spaniards and led to the expedition of Adelantado Pedro de Mendoza.
In 1536, Mendoza sent Juan de Ayolas up the Paraguay River to find
a route to the land of the Caracara. Ayolas ascended the Paraguay River
to the Port of Candelaria, at lat. 19° S., whence, led by a former slave
of Garcia, he crossed the Chaco through the land of the Mhayd, and
reached the Caracara. Like Alejo Garcia, he returned "with 20 loads
of gold and silver," but, on reaching the Paraguay River, he and his
companions were massacred by the Payagua Indians (1538). A year
earlier, Juan de Salazar de Espinosa had founded the city of Asuncion.
The Cario {Guarani), who understood the aim of the Spaniards and
who hoped to make them allies in their raids, were extremely friendly
to the Spaniards, and provided them with food and women. Henceforth,
the Guarani served as auxiliaries and porters in all Spanish expeditions,
whether to the Chaco or to the Andes, When Alvar Nunez Cabeza de
Vaca fought the Mbayd-Guaicuru in 1542, he was assisted by 10,000
Vol. 3] THE GUARANI— METRAUX 77
Guarani, who gathered at Tapua. Two thousand Guarani accompanied
Domingo de Irala in 1548 and even more followed Nufrio de Chaves
in 1558.
The Guarani later resisted the ruthless exploitation of which they were
victims (for example, the revolts of Tabare and Guarambare), but they
lacked the determination and unity shown by other tribes so that their
revolts were easily crushed. Later Guarani rebellions were often led by
native messiahs, the most famous of whom was Obera (end of the 16th
century), who promised the Indians supernatural support and convinced
them that the happiness of native times would be restored after the final
expulsion of the White men.
From the outset, the conquistadors, like the European colonists on
the coast of Brazil, were strongly attracted by the beauty of the Guarani
women — who readily yielded to their solicitations — and took native wives
or mistresses. As some of these were daughters and sisters of local
chiefs, the alliances proved useful to the Spaniards, for the Indians felt
obliged to support and serve their new relatives. The Spaniards lived
scattered in small ranches around Asuncion, surrounded by harems (some
with 20 to 30 women), and by their wives' relatives.
The young colony came to consist of a rapidly growing Mestizo popu-
lation, without which it would have been abandoned soon after the
Conquest of Peru. The system of encomiendas, introduced in the middle
of the 16th century, had the usual dire effects on the native population.
Forced to work for their masters and often ill-treated, the Indians died
by the thousands. At the end of the 16th century, there remained
within a radius of 21 miles (7 leagues) around Asuncion, only 3,000
Indians. The region of Tapua, north of Asuncion, which had been
covered with ranches, was practically abandoned. The disappearance
of the natives, however, was compensated by the constant increase of
the Mestizos, or "mancebos de la tierra," whose lawlessness is often
stressed by Spanish chroniclers. These descendants of early Spaniards
and Guarani form the main element in the million or so people of modern
Paraguay, so that their language is still spoken in rural Paraguay, in
the Argentine territory of Misiones, and in the State of Corrientes. Even
in cities, such as Asuncion, part of the population still uses the language
of their Guarani ancestors.
The missions. — Unlike the Guarani under the Spanish encomiendas,
that portion of the tribe which occupied the upper Parana River and the
Uruguay River basin was subject to Jesuit missions for about two centuries
(1608-1767). Their post-Conquest history, therefore, is identical with
that of the missions. The first Jesuits (Juan Solano, Manuel de Ortega,
and Tomas Filds) arrived in Asuncion in 1588. Two of these fathers
went to the region of El Guaira, a territory defined on the west by the
Parana River, on the north by the Tiete River, on the south by the Iguassu
78 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
River, and in the east by a vague line drawn by the treaty of Tordesillas.
Here, the Spaniards had founded two cities, Ciudad real del Guaira (1554)
and Villarica. The two Jesuits visited numerous Indian villages, baptizing
children and moribunds, but they did not establish any permanent mission.
In 1609, the King of Spain, at the request of Hernandarias de Saavedra,
Governor of Paraguay, granted the Jesuits permission to conquer the
150,000 Guarani Indians of El Guaira, by "means of doctrines and by the
preaching of the Gospel."
The first Jesuit mission in Paraguay was San Ignacio Guazu, founded
north of the Parana River, but the first establishments of El Guaira
(Nuestra Sefiora de Loreto and San Ignacio-miri on the Pirapo River),
which were to become so prosperous, were created in 1610 by Fathers Jose
Cataldino and Simon Maceta. The apostle of the Guaira was the famous
Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, founder of 11 missions between 1622 and 1629
and author of the great classic of Guarani language, the "Arte, vocabulario,
tesoro de la lengua Guarani" (1876). In another book, "Conquista
espiritual ... del Paraguay" (1892), he reports his adventures and
successes and the ruin of the missions. In 1630, the flourishing missions of
El Guaira were destroyed by the raids of slave hunters from Sao Paulo,
the dreaded mamelucos, who attacked the missions and captured all whom
they did not slaughter. In a few years, they are said to have killed or
enslaved 300,000 Guarani Indians. From 1628 to 1630 they took 60,000
Indians from the Jesuit missions to Sao Paulo. In 1631 Ruiz de Montoya
evacuated Loreto and San Ignacio, the two last missions to survive in El
Guaira, and took the people in a heroic anabasis from El Guaira to the
Parana River. Twelve thousand Indians began this forced migration but
only 4,000 survived its vicissitudes.
The northern territory of the Guarani, between the Paraguay, Mbotetey
(Miranda), and Jejui-guazu Rivers and the Sierra de Amambay, was
called the Province of Itatin after one of its local Guarani subtribes. The
Jesuits founded four missions here in 1631, but in 1632 these were all
destroyed by the mamelucos from Sao Paulo. Later, two new missions
were founded in the same area.
The same year the Jesuits entered the mountainous region in the Bra-
zilian State of Rio Grande do Sul, which forms the divide between the
basins of the Uruguay and the Jacui Rivers. This was formerly called
Tape, but today only a branch of the mountain system is known as Sierra
de los Tapes ; the remainder is known as Sierra de San Martin and Cuchilla
Grande. From 1632 to 1635, the Jesuits founded 10 "reducciones" here.
The renewed assaults of the mamelucos in 1638 forced the Jesuits to
evacuate the missions of Tape, a region that was forever lost to Portugal.
After these last inroads, the Guarani Indians received guns and, on two
occasions — at Caazapa-guazii and at Mborore (1639 and 1640) — ^they
defeated the mamelucos. From 1687 to 1707, eight new missions were
Vol. 3] THE GUARANI— METRAUX 79
founded which, together with the others, formed the 30 cities of the so-
called "Paraguayan State of the Jesuits."
The Jesuit expansion was resisted by certain Guarani shamans, chiefs,
and especially messiahs, who seem to have been very numerous in this
period of hardship and misery. Meanwhile, the Jesuits were persecuted by
the encomenderos, who could not tolerate the loss of so many Indians to
the missionaries. The southern missions of Yapeyu and La Cruz were
often molested by the incursions of the Yard, Mbohane, Minuane, and
Charrua Indians. Several expeditions of Guarani were led by Spanish
officers against these wild tribes.
The first blow to the Jesuits was the treaty of 1750 between Spain and
Portugal, by which Philip VI yielded to Portugal seven Jesuit missions
on the eastern side of the Uruguay River (San Borja, San Nicolas, San
Luis, San Lorenzo, Santo Angel, San Miguel, and San Juan) in exchange
for the colony of Sacramento. The Indians refused to abandon their
villages and resisted by arms the forced expulsion. Both Spain and
Portugal had to send armies, which defeated the Indians in 1756. Three
years later, the Tratado de Limites was abrogated and the seven towns were
returned to the Jesuits, but in the meantime they had been partially
destroyed and the Indian population, estimated at 30,000 a few years
before, had considerably decreased.
The year 1767, when all Jesuits were expelled from South America, is
a fateful date in the history of the South American Indians. The Indians
who had been under Jesuit rule dwindled or disappeared altogether.
Tribes left their missions to return to the bush ; Indians in Jesuit colonies
reverted to barbarism and regions previously explored again became geo-
graphical blanks on the map.
The new charter which Don Francisco de Paula Bucareli y Ursua
drafted for the missions after the expulsion of the Jesuits differed from
the previous system only in minor points. The so-called communistic
feature of the Jesuit regime and the restrictions on commerce were main-
tained, but none of the more progressive aspects of the plan, such as the
foundation of a University, were ever applied. Control of the missions
was given to Franciscans, assisted by lay administrators. The results
were baleful. The missions were invaded by colonists who robbed the
Indians of their lands and destroyed the cattle and mate plantations.
The fields were abandoned and the handicrafts forgotten through lack of
teachers. The Indians were forced to work for the Whites and were
victimized by the local authorities. Many continued to live on their
plantations but others returned to the forests. Those who remained in
the missions were completely demoralized by alcoholism and the bad
example of the colonists. The wars of independence and the later national
wars completed the decadence and the ruin of the missions. In 1801 the
seven towns in Uruguay were given back to Portugal; in 1817 the
80 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
dictator, Francia, ordered the destruction of the five missions south of
the Parana River. The 15 missions between the Parana and Uruguay
Rivers were abandoned during the war of 1816-18. The Guarani who
were not slaughtered settled in small villages, often near the ancient
missions. In 1848 the dictator of Paraguay, Carlos Antonio Lopez,
suppressed Bucareli's regime and forced the 6,000 Guarani who still
occupied missions to live in ordinary villages like the remainder of the
Paraguayan population. The last vestiges of the Jesuit system disappeared
after that date.
The Jesuit missions of Paraguay have been the subject of considerable
controversy concerning their alleged communistic organization.
CULTURE
SUBSISTENCE ACTIVITIES
The early Guarani seem to have been proficient horticulturists, perhaps
superior to their modern descendants, the Caingud, who are said to be
unable to subsist entirely on the output of their small fields. Like the
Tupinamha, the Guarani supplemented their diet with all kinds of wild
fruits, and with game and fish.
Fanning. — The whole community, among both ancient and modern
Guarani, cooperated in clearing a large field by the slash-and-burn method
in a thick forest and then subdivided it into family plots. Planting and
sowing were regulated by the course of the Pleiades. The main agricul-
tural tool was the digging stick. After five or six years of cultivation
fields were considered exhausted and were abandoned.
Most plants typical of the Tropics, excepi cayenne pepper, were raised
by the Guarani and are still grown by their descendants, the Caingud and
the Paraguayan Mestizos. Manioc, mainly the sweet species, and maize
are the staples. The Caingud cultivate manioc, maize (5 varieties), sev-
eral varieties of sweet potatoes, beans, mangara (Xanthosoma sp.), a tuber
called carahu (Dioscorea sp.), a leguminosea called mbacucu, peanuts,
pumpkins, bananas, papayas, and watermelons. They also grow an herb
(Nissolia sp.) for curing serpent bites, and two shrubs (Rhamanidium
sp., and Coix lacryma-jobi), the seeds of which serve as beads. The Pan'
and Chiripd raise tacuapi reeds, or cana de Castilla (Arundo donax), for
their arrow shafts. The Caingud are very fond of sugarcane, which is
for them a delicacy.
Gathering wild foods. — The Guarani of the southern Brazilian plateau
consumed great quantities of pine nuts (Araucaria brasiliensis) , which
are abundant in that region.
The modern Caingud subsist far more than did their ancestors on wild
plants, especially pindo palms (Cocos romanzoffiana) . This tree not
only Drovides them leaves for making baskets, but also with vitamin-rich
terminal shoots, with juicy fruits, oily nuts, and pith which the Indians
Vol. 3] THE GUARANI— METRAUX 81
eat in times of want. They also gather the fruits of other palms, such as
Acrocomia mokayayba, A. total, Cocos yatay, Attalea, and of several trees
and other plants, including Carica, Annona, araza, ihwa-imbe {Philoden-
dron bipinnatifidum) , mburucudya (Passiflora edulis), wild oranges, etc.
The Caingud relish honey, which is for them an important food resource.
The Apapocuva have taken the first steps toward domesticating bees.
When they gather honey, they spare several combs so that the bees can
return to the same place another time. They also acclimatize swarms of
bees to their villages. The fat of butterfly larvae (Phalaenidae and
Morphidae) and of beetles (tambu, Calandra palmarum^) is part of
Caingud diet. They fell some trees for the purpose of developing the
larvae in the decayed wood.
Hunting. — Because the Caingud prefer meat to any other food, their
main concern when they move their village is to choose an area with
abundant game. They make great use of traps. These are of two types :
dead falls, which crush the game ; and spring snares with automatic
release, for birds and even for large quadrupeds, like tapir or deer. Traps
and pitfalls are often located at places where animals enter fenced fields.
The Caingud capture parrots in a noose at the end of a pole. They have
dogs trained for hunting, especially for jaguars.
Lower jaws of jaguars are kept as trophies suspended in front of huts.
Fishing. — Fishing is of secondary importance. It is reported that the
ancient Guarani angled with wooden hooks; those living on the Coast
used tucuma fiber nets. Although modern Guarani are well provided
with iron hooks, they still shoot fish with bows and arrows, force them
into baskets placed in the openings of stone dams, or poison them in calm
water with the juice of a Sapindaceae (Vogt, 1904, p. 204).
Domesticated animals. — The only domesticated animal in pre-Colum-
bian times was the Muscovy duck. Today they have dogs, chickens, and
many other European farm animals.
Cooking. — The food of the rural population of Paraguay is largely a
heritage of the ancient Guarani. The most popular dishes prepared with
maize are chipas — cakes made of maize flour — mbai puy, maize mush,
abati pororo, boiled maize, and guaimi atucupe — maize dough wrapped in
leaves and cooked under the ashes. The Caingud have about 12 recipes
for preparing maize. Maize flour baked in a green bamboo joint is
a Caingud specialty.
Manioc tubers are generally boiled or roasted. They are also sliced,
dried in the sun, and pounded into a flour with which the Caingud make
wafers. Flour for wafers is also prepared by the Caingud with tubers
soaked in water or mud for 8 days, and then dried in the sun and ground.
Manioc starch is also extracted by grating the tubers — today on a tin
grater — and washing the mass in water.
* Rhynchoplwrus sp., according to Strelnichov.
82 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
They crush the pith of the palms in a mortar, strain it through a sieve,
and dry it in the sun.
Meat is more often broiled on a spit than on a babracot. Broiled fish
and game are sometimes ground into powder (piracui).
Caingud do not use salt. Instead they season their food with the ashes
of a tree {Machaerium angustifolium) .
Wooden mortars are generally made of a long log hollowed at one
end, but some have the grinding pit on the side. Flour is strained through
beautifully plaited sieves, identical to those of Guiana, although Paraguay
is the southernmost limit of their distribution. When the Caingud have
no pottery at hand, they boil food in green bamboo joints. They serve
food in wooden dishes or in calabashes of various sizes and shapes.
VILLAGES AND HOUSES
A typical Guarani village consisted of four to eight large rectangular
houses — some about 50 m. (165 ft.) long — grouped around a square
plaza. Each house had a vaulted or gabled roof which rose from the
ground and was supported on a ridge pole that rested on a row of posts
dividing off the quarters of each individual family. The roof was thatched
with grass, palm leaves and, in certain regions of the coast, with pieces
of bark. There was a door on each side of the house. Villages were forti-
fied with a double or triple stockade and a series of moats, bristling with
half-buried spears.
The vaulted hut has survived only among the Pan'. Other Caingud
now build either a gable roof resting on the ground and thatched with
tacuapi grass, or palm leaves, or a gabled house with vertical wattle-and-
daub walls (4 to 6 m., or 13 to 20 ft., long; 3 to 4 m., or 10 to 13 ft.,
wide). Grass thatching is sewn to the structure with large wooden
needles. Of all the modern Guarani only some Caingud of Brazil still
lived in communal houses 50 years ago. These houses were 25 to 50
feet (7.5 to 15 m.) long and were grouped in villages surrounded by a
thorn hedge or a palisade.
Household furniture. — The aboriginal cotton or palm-fiber hammock
is now being supplanted by the platform bed or sleeping mat. Four-
legged benches, which are often carved out of a single log in animal
shapes, are still fairly common. Utensils and foods are stored on shelves
suspended from the roof or are hung on wooden hooks or on bent deer feet.
DRESS AND ADORNMENT
Clothing. — Most of the Guarani went entirely naked, although in cer-
tain regions, it seems, women wore either a loincloth or a cotton dress
(the tipoy), a sacklike garment covering the body from the breasts to
the knees which was eventually adopted universally through missionary
Vol. 3] THE GUARANI— METRAUX 83
influence. The southernmost Guarani, who lived in a harsh climate,
followed the example of the Charrua and wore skin cloaks. In some
Caingud groups, men wear a loincloth (hence the name Chiripd) ; in
others they pass a piece of cloth between the legs and tuck it under a
belt of human hair or fibers (hence the name, Baticola, "crupper").
Today cotton ponchos are sometimes worn by men.
Ornaments. — The distinctive lip ornament of ancient and modern
Guarani is a long T-shaped stick made of jatahy rosin; labrets of
stone or bone were exceptional.^^ Women hang triangular shell pendants
from their ears. In the 16th century, men wore huge shell-disk
necklaces, which have often been discovered in archeological sites. A
few privileged individuals suspended on their chest pendants of silver
or copper plates which had reached Paraguay from Peru.
At ceremonies, modern Caingud men wear feather wreaths, cotton
sashes fringed with feathers, or seed necklaces with feather tassels. Pairs
of these necklaces are crossed over the chest. Children's and women's
necklaces are strung with pyramidal wooden beads, wooden or bone
pendants carved into human or animal forms, seeds, small gourds, fish
vertebrae, pendants made of toucan skin, and other objects.
Feather cloaks, formerly worn by famous chiefs, are no longer seen,
but feather bracelets and diadems are still used by shamans or participants
in religious ceremonies. On some headdresses, feathers were mounted
on a woven frontlet, a technique suggesting Andean influence. Feather
garlands were sometimes tied on top of the head in the form of rudi-
mentary bonnets. The Mbyd wear bracelets, garters, and anklets of
human hair. Belts of hair are worn only by men. Finger rings of
palm fruits or iguana tails seem now to have become fashionable.
The circular tonsure of the ancient Guarani, still used by some Caingud
groups, did not extend to the forehead, as among the Tupinamha, but
was similar to that of Franciscan monks.
Painting. — ^The use of urucii for body paint is widespread, but that of
genipa seems to be limited to the Brazilian Caingud. Other groups sub-
stitute for it the juices of several plants or a mixture of charcoal and
honey or wax. Traditional facial designs are dots and stripes, some-
times applied with bamboo stamps.
The ancient Itatin rubbed ashes from bones of birds of prey or swift
animals into cuts made in their skin to improve their dexterity in archery.
TRANSPORTATION
Boats. — The ancient literature rarely mentions dugout canoes though
they must have been common on the Paraguay and Parana Rivers. The
Paraguayan Caingud live on streams that are unsuited to boats and con-
sequently make only a few dugouts or bamboo rafts, mainly for crossing
*' Today labrets have fallen into disuse.
84 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
rivers. They propel these craft with poles. The Cayud of Brazil, who
reside near larger streams, are good boatmen and travel a great deal in
large dugouts, 8 to 12 feet (2.5 to 3.5 m.) long.
Carrying devices. — Goods are carried in cylindrical or rectangular
twilled baskets, reinforced with a wooden frame. Pan' carrying baskets
are relatively extensible and are made of intertwined pindo leaves, the
midribs strengthening the whole structure. Carrying nets made of bark
strips were clearly introduced with the mate industry. The Guarani skin
bag is certainly older than the net and appears to be an article that origin-
ated locally or was borrowed from tribes to the south.
Babies are ordinarily carried in a sling, straddling their mothers' hips,
but they may be transported in baskets or in skin bags.
MANUFACTURES
Basketry. — The Guarani weave temporary baskets of the pinnae of
pindo palms, the midrib serving to reinforce the rim. More permanent
containers are made of twilled fabrics of tacuarembo strands. They are
ornamented with black, geometrical motifs.
Spinning and weaving. — Thread is made of cotton carded with a bow,
or of Bromelia, nettle ( Urera grandifolia) , and palm (Acrocomia total)
fibers.
Cotton is spun with a drop spindle and woven on a vertical loom with a
circular warp. Cloth is generally white with alternate brown and black
stripes, dyed with the bark of Peltophorum duhium and Trichilia catigua.
The technique of darning weft strands through warp elements attached to
a vertical loom, though it has been observed in modem times, was probably
an early practice abandoned when true weaving became general, probably
through Arawak influence.
Pottery. — Guarani ceramics are known through archeological finds in
Sao Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul, near Asuncion in the Argentine territory of
Misiones, and on the island of Martin Garcia. The largest specimens are
funeral urns, which also served as beer containers. Small dishes and bowls
have a white interior slip which bears sigmoid figures, curves, triangles,
mazes, and "grecques." The large jars and ordinary ware have continuous
rows of thumbnail or other impressions over their entire surface. The
Caingua, who have practically given up pottery, make only a ware that is
decadent in quality and shape. Bowls with a flaring base ("compotera"
types) may perhaps be a survival of a pre-Columbian type.
Leather work. — The Caingua carry their small possessions in skin
bags.
Weapons. — Caingua bows are made of palm wood, guayaihwi (Pata-
gonula americana), or ihvira payu, ihvira pepe {Holocalyx halansae).
They are 6 to 8 feet (2 to 2.5 m.) long, circular or oval in cross section,
and entirely or partially wrapped with guembe bark {Philodendron sp.)
Vol. 3] THE GUARANI— METRAUX 85
or covered with a basketry sheath in the center. A small bulge at each
end made of wrapped bark strips prevents the fiber bowstring from
slipping. Archers wear wrist guards of human hair or of cotton (Chiripd) .
The main types of arrowheads found in the tropical area are used by the
Caingud: Lanceolate taquara heads; tapering sticks, plain or barbed on
one or both sides ; and conical wooden plugs for stunning birds.
The war arrows of the ancient Guarani were often tipped with human
bones.
The arrow shafts are made either of the native tacuati reed (Merosta-
chys argyronema) or more commonly of the imported tacuapi, or cafia
de Castilla (Arundo donax).
The feathering is of the Eastern Brazilian, or arched type. The pellet-
bow is widely used by young Caingud boys to shoot birds or small rodents. ^
The missiles are small clay pellets.
Caingud clubs are either swordlike with cutting edges or plain sticks
with a square cross section and a basketry sheath around the handle.
Sometimes they taper into a point. The Guarani were acquainted with the
sling but found little use for it in their forested habitat.
The Guarani warriors whom the Spaniards fought in the 16th century
carried shields, often decorated with feathers. This defensive weapon
has not been reported since the 17th century.
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION
Among the ancient Guarani, the social unit was probably the large
extended patrilineal family — perhaps the sib. Sometimes as many as 60
families lived under the same roof. Each community had a chief, but the
actual power was often in the hands of a shaman. Ma,ny of the great
Guara7ii leaders who resisted the Spaniards in the 17th century were
shamans endowed with divine prestige. Some ancient chiefs extended
their influence over a fairly wide area. A general council of chiefs and
adult men decided community and district affairs and elected war chiefs
who commanded obedience during expeditions.
All Apapocuva-Guarani chiefs, for at least a hundred years, have been
shamans who have reached the highest rank within their profession. Like
the ancient chiefs, they have been credited with supernatural power and
with miracles performed on behalf of their people.
A Guarani chief was succeeded by his eldest son unless there was some
stronger member of the family. However, an eloquent man distinguished
in warfare might become chief. Persons dissatisfied with their headman
might secede and start a new settlement under another leader. Chiefs of
Caingud communities in Paraguay have a Spanish title and carry a stick
as symbol of their ofiice. Fifty years ago, a few villages were administered
as in Jesuit times, by a cacique mayor and cacique menor, a sargento, and
* For a good description of the Guarani pellet-bow, see Azara, 1809, 2:67.
86 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.B. Bull. 143
a cabo (Vogt, 1904, p. 203). Today the number of Indians under the
authority of a chief vary from 20 to about 100.
The members of the ancient Guarani communities built the houses of
their chiefs and tilled their fields and harvested their crops (Ruiz de
Montoya, 1892, p. 49).
Law and order. — It is only about modern Caingud communities that
there is some information on justice and law. Thieves are detected by
shamans, who touch each suspected man on the chest near the heart. If
the fingers leave a red mark, the man is guilty. A stolen wife must be
returned with a present. In case of murder, if the criminal's relatives do
not pay the wergild to prevent a feud, the offended family takes the
punishment into its own hands.
Etiquette. — Among ancient Guarani, when a guest entered a hut, he
was surrounded by women who wailed and enumerated the deeds of his
dead relatives. The guest covered his face with his hands and shed a
few tears. The amount of crying and wailing was proportionate to the
importance of the visitor (Ruiz de Montoya, 1892, p. 52).
LIFE CYCLE
Birth and naming. — Even in modern days, a pregnant woman must
avoid any food that might make her child abnormal. After childbirth,
the father lies in his hammock until the infant's navel cord falls off, re-
fraining from activities thought harmful to the baby. The Apapocuva
believe that babies are reincarnated dead people, hence one of the shaman's
first tasks is to identify the returning spirit and, by means of his super-
natural power, to obtain a magic substance to be rubbed into the child's
body. Infant baptism, though Catholic in many respects, is permeated
by ancient rites and beliefs. Names refer to mythical beings or to sacred
objects associated with the place on the horizon from which the soul is
supposed to have come. Children may be very closely identified with
the deities of the Upper World, and those from the west, the abode of
Tupa, may receive a miniature of the bench symbolic of their divine name-
sake. In case of danger, especially if a person is sick, his name is changed
and a new ceremony of baptism is performed (Nimuendaju, 1914 a, pp.
302-303).
Boys* initiation. — A Caingud boy undergoes something of an initiation
rite when, prior to puberty, his lower lip is perforated for the insertion of
a labret. After a group of boys has been somewhat anesthetized with beer,
a specialist perforates each boy's lower lip with a wooden or deer-hom
awl and prays to Tupa that the labret may protect its wearer against death.
For the three following days the initiates eat only maize mush. After
their initiation they drop the infantile "u, u" (yes) for the adult mascu-
line "ta."
Vol. 8] THE GUAKANI— MBTRAUX 87
Girls* puberty. — Among ancient Guarani, at her first menstruation, a
girl was sewn in her hammock and remained there for 2 or 3 days. Her
hair was cut short and, until it grew to its former length, she had to
forego meat and to work hard under the supervision of an older woman.
For modern Caingud also, coming of age is a critical period which calls
for many ritual observances ; the girl is secluded for 3 weeks behind
a screen in a corner of the house and eats only a few foods, which must be
lukewarm. She must not talk, laugh, lift her eyes from the ground,
scratch herself, or blow on the fire. She must also listen to advice con-
cerning her future life as a wife and a mother. Before she resumes normal
activities, a shaman washes her with a special decoction.
Marriage. — There is little information on marriage in ancient times.
Girls were married soon after puberty. Child betrothal is reported among
the Guarani of the Parana River. In some cases little girls were given to
grown men, who lived with their child wives, probably in the house of their
future parents-in-law.
Child betrothal is reported among modern Caingud, but the girls re-
main with their parents, who receive presents from their prospective
sons-in-law. The preferred form of marriage seems to have been between
cross-cousins and between a maternal uncle and his niece. Union with a
mother and her daughter and sororal polygyny can be inferred from allu-
sions in the Jesuitic literature. Only chiefs and influential shamans seem
to have been able to support several wives. Some powerful caciques are
said to have had from 15 to 30 wives. The levirate is stated by Ruiz de
Montoya (1892, p. 49) to have been observed by chiefs. Today residence
is patrilocal.
Deatti. — So strong is the hope for reincarnation that a dying Apapocuva
(Nimuendaju, 1914 a, p. 307) accepts death with great fortitude. He
sings medicine songs while women wail and the shamans chant, shaking
their rattles in farewell to the departing soul.
Among the ancient Guarani, as soon as a man had breathed his last,
his wives and female relatives gave the most violent demonstrations of
grief, often injuring themselves by flinging themselves to the ground
from some elevation (Ruiz de Montoya, 1892, p. 52).
The ancient Guarani put their dead into large chicha jars and covered
them with a bowl. These funeral urns were buried up to the neck (Ruiz
de Montoya, 1892, p. 52).* Modem Caingud bury their dead directly in
the ground with arms and legs flexed against the body or lay them with
their possessions in a wooden trough or hollowed tree trunk.
Both ancient and some modern Guarani bury their dead in the hut,
which is immediately abandoned. The Caingud of Paraguay inter the
* Ruiz de Montoya, 1892, p. 52: " , . , muchos enterraban sus muertos en Unas grandes
tinajas, poniendo un plate en la boca para que en aquella concavidad estuviese mas acomodada el
alma aunque estas tinajas las enterraban hasta el cuello."
88 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
corpse in the bush and build a miniature hut on the grave. They burn
the dead man's house and sometimes the whole settlement. For a short
time they bring food to the grave and keep a fire burning upon it. Sec-
ondary interment is reported for the Mbyd chiefs. A dead person's name
is taboo.
As among the Tupinamba, visitors and members of the community
were received with tears and expressions of sorrow. These manifesta-
tions of grief took place probably only if somebody in the village had
died. (See Etiquette, p. 86.)
According to the Apapocuva, after death a soul first attempts to reach
the Land-Without-Evil where "Our Mother" resides, but even if it
passes the demon Anay unscathed, other souls may detain it until its
reincarnation. Those who have suffered a violent death or leave behind
a beloved person or have been frustrated and are reluctant to go to the
hereafter, are likely to haunt the familiar places of life until they are
expelled or are reincarnated in a newborn baby. Children's souls are
the only ones that can easily reach the Land- Without-Evil (Nimuendaju,
1914 a).
CANNIBALISM
Cannibalism, although never attributed to modern Caingua, was an
honored practice among the ancient Guarani. Its ritual seems to have
been the same as among the Tupinamba (p. 119). The prisoner was well
treated and was given a wife ; but finally, after many months and even
many years of captivity, he was ceremonially sacrificed on the village
plaza. Like the Tupinamba, the Guarani prisoner pelted his tormentors
with stones and boasted of his great deeds and of those of his people.
Children were urged to crush the victim's skull with small copper axes
and to dip their hands in his blood, while they were reminded of their
duties as future warriors. According to Ruiz de Montoya (1892, p. 51),
everyone who touched the corpse with his hand or with a stick and every-
one who ate a morsel of it assumed a new name.
ESTHETIC AND RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Art. — Decorative art among the Caingua is limited to the simple geo-
metrical patterns of basketry work, and to the motifs painted on pottery,
incised or burned on gourds. Lozenges are one of the favorite designs;
anthropomorphic or zoomorphic themes are exceptional.
Games and toys. — Small children show certain skill at modeling men
or animals of wax, clay, or palm leaves. Their favorite recreations are
wrestling, racing, hide-and-seek, tug-of-war, shooting, and dancing. The
toys mentioned by our sources are noise-producing tops and buzzing disks.
The ancient Itatin, i.e., the Guarani north of the Apa River, played
Vol. 3] THE GUARANI— METRAUX 89
games with rubber balls. These liall games were still popular in some
Jesuit missions until the 18th century.
Today the Caingud play with a maize-leaf shuttlecock, which they
throw at each other and try to keep in the air as long as possible.
Musical instruments. — Among the ancient Guarani and among their
modern descendants, the gourd rattle and the stamping tube are the
most sacred religious instruments. In the Apapocuva-Guarani tribe,
rattles are handled only by men. Their "voice," i.e., their sound, is be-
lieved to be endowed with sacred power. Shamans are capable of shaking
rattles according the most varied rhythmic patterns. The stamping tube
is a bamboo section closed at one end, trimmed with feathers, and engraved
with checkerboard designs. It is an instrument reserved to women who
pound it against the ground to produce a dull thud which marks the
cadence of their dances.
The flutes of the ancient Guarani were often made of the long bones
of their slain enemies. There is no information in our sources about
their other musical instruments.
There are few types of musical instruments among modern Caingud.
The Pan' and Chiripa have musical bows which they play either with
their fingers or with a fiddle bow. The transverse flute with six stops
and a blowhole was adopted by Mhya men in post-Colum,bian times. A
curious type of panpipe used only by women has been reported among
modern Caingud. It consists of five bamboo tubes of different sizes which
are not bound together, but are simply held with both hands. Spanish
drums and guitars are now supplanting native musical instruments.
Narcotics. — Yerba mate, or "Paraguay tea," though now characteristic
of Paraguay and used daily by the Guarani, who sip it through a reed
from a small gourd, is scarcely mentioned in the old literature. The
aboriginal Guarani seem to have regarded it as a magic herb taken only
by shamans. Modern Caingud collect mate in the forest and prepare it
in their villages, drying the leaves for a whole night on a platform over
a fire.
Tobacco was smoked in the form of cigars or in pipes. Clay pipes
have been found archeologically, and the Caingud still used them not
long ago. Like some Chiriguano pipes, those of the Caingud had their
bowls ornamented with a sort of crest.
Like the Tupinamba and other Brazilian tribes, the Guarani celebrated
all the main events of life with drinking bouts : The return of a successful
hunting or fishing expedition, harvest, and the execution of a prisoner.
Their favorite beverage (kaguiai) was prepared mainly with maize but
also with sweet potatoes and more rarely with manioc. Fermentation was
activated by the addition of chewed corn or leaves of caa-tory {Physurus
sp.). Modern Caingud prepare mead, which may be quite strong.
90 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS tB.A,B. Bull. 143
RELIGION
The great personages of Apapocuva-Guarani mythology deserve the
title of gods though they remain aloof from the affairs of this world.
Creators and Transformers, they continue to exist and men yearn to live
in their company. Some day they will destroy the world which they have
created and shaped. The most majestic deity is the Creator, HanderuvuQU,
Our Great Father, who now resides in a dark region which he lights with
the glimmer of his chest. His wife, who was also the first woman, Ran-
de^y, Our Mother, has her abode in the west in the Land-Without-Evil.
According to Vellard (1939 a, p. 169), the main deity of the Mbyd is
Namandu who lives in the east and gives life to the world. Tupa is the
deity of the west. The north belongs to Yahira, the god of vengeance and
death. Vellard (1939 a, p. 171) quotes prayers to Ramandu in which he
is asked for game or for good health, but there is no evidence of a cult
of the Creator among the Apapocuva.
The Pan' and Mbyd, who in the past have certainly been subject to
Jesuit influences, recognize Tupa as the Creator and High God. Among
the Apapocuva, whose ancient traditions seem unimpaired, Tupa, son of
Nande^y, is a secondary nature deity, the personification of the thunder.
He is a short man, with woolly hair, who causes a storm every time he
crosses the skies in his wooden trough in the company of Thunder Birds.
The original nature of this secondary god, promoted to an exalted position
among acculturated Guarani, is still present in the memory of his worship-
pers, who refer to him as "The Great Thunder," "The Great Noise," or
"Master of Thunder." Under him, minor Tupa are respectively lords of
the rain, hailstorm, lig'hting, and thunder (Pan'). A stock of traditional
prayers which these Indians address to their God whenever in need of
help betrays Christian influences.
Certain rites observed by the Apapocuva and even by the ancient Guarani
can be interpreted only as worship of the sun, whom the Apapocuva call
"Our Father." Sun is given as the Son of Our Great Father or of Tupa.
Animism. — ^According to the Apapocuva, two souls coexist in every
man. One, called ayvucue, comes from the mansion of some deity in the
west, zenith, or east, and enters the body immediately after birth. This
soul is identified with a peaceful disposition, gentleness, and a craving for
vegetables ; but the temperament of a person is conditioned by the animal
soul (acyigua), which he harbors in the nape of his neck. Patient and
friendly people may have a butterfly soul ; whereas a jaguar soul makes a
man cruel and brutal. Unrest, violence, malice, and lust for meat are
generally ascribed to the acyigua.
Dreams are experiences of the soul and are paid great attention,
especially by shamans, who derive their supernatural knowledge and power
from them.
t
Plate 11. — Fingernail-marked Guarani ware. Top: Sherds from Martin
Garcia, Argentina. Center: Vessels from Arroyo Malo, Parand Delta. Bottom:
Vessels from Paraguay. Funerary urn at left. {Top, after Bruzzone, 1931;
center, after Lothrop, 1932; bottom, courtesy Max Schmidt.)
a
Plate 12. — Guarani and other pottery from Paraguay, a, b, Painted; c, plain;
d, e, probably Mbayd-Guana incised ware. (Courtesy Max Schmidt.)
Vol, 3] THE GUARANI— METRAUX 91
After death the two souls separate ; the ayvucue generally tries to reach
the Land-Without-Evil, but may linger dangerously near his former
home. The animal soul, too, is likely to turn into a fearful ghost. To
drive the ayvucue away, the shamans organize a dance in which two
opposite groups of dancers, by running to and fro and passing each other
at full speed, so confuse the soul that it is lost in a maze. The shaman
then is able to deliver it to Tupa, who takes it to the Land of the Dead.
The animal soul has to be attacked with weapons and exterminated like
a dangerous animal (Nimuendaju, 1914 a, p. 305) .
The Caingud feel themselves surrounded by spirits or demons, who
appear in human or animal forms. They are the masters or the protectors
of animals, plants, trees, water places, and winds. These genii, if oflfended,
can be harmful.
Ceremonials. — Among the Apapocuva-Guarani, any trouble, any anx-
iety felt by the community or the shaman, or even the prospect of a collec-
tive enterprise stimulates a ceremonial dance. The performers stand in a
line, the women on one end, jumping up and down on the same spot and
pounding their stamping tubes; the men on the other end, shaking their
rattles, slightly stooping, knees bent, throwing their feet forward and
backward in a rapid tempo. The shaman faces the dancers and walks,
runs, or bounces in front of them brandishing his rattle. Each woman in
turn performs a solo dance in front of the line of the men, and sometimes
she may invite a man to dance opposite her (Nimuendaju, 1914 a, p. 347).
Great emphasis is placed on orientation; the dancers always face the
east and, when the entire line revolves, it invariably moves north, west,
and south, describing a perfect ellipse. Dancers often hold ceremonial
clubs, trimmed with basketry sheaths. The shaman carries a ritual stick.
Dances take place in special fence-enclosed huts, which open toward the
east and serve as storehouses for the ritual paraphernalia.
The most important Apapocuva ceremony is celebrated by the whole
tribe just before harvest. Cultivated plants, wild fruits, and game are
exhibited near candles and, after 4 days of ritual dancing, are sprinkled
with holy water. The assistants at the ritual are also baptized on the same
occasion. The object of the festivities, which are characterized by a spirit
of harmony and pleasant cheerfulness, is to guard men and food from evil
influences. The Caingud offer cakes made with the first ripe maize to
Tupa.
SHAMANISM
No amount of training can make an Apapocuva-Guarani a shaman if he
has not been supernaturally inspired with magic chants. To every adult
male or female sooner or later a dead relative reveals a chant, which the
recipient eagerly teaches to the rest of the community. Its possession
confers a certain immunity against accidents. A shaman is a man who
653333—47—9
92 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.B. Bull. 143
owns a great many magic chants, which he uses for the common good of
his people. He must also be capable of leading a ceremonial dance, of
playing the rattle gourd in the different modes, and of performing the
rites befitting certain circumstances. The main test of his skill is offered
by the harvest dance, which can be successfully organized only by full-
fledged shamans. By his "voltes" and jumps, the shaman endeavors to
make his body "light." He must also have frequent dreams, because they
give him superior knowledge and insight into the future.
The ancient Guarani and even many modern groups assign disease to
the intrusion of an object into the body. The Apapocuva visualize the
source of the illness as an invisible substance that the shaman sees after
he has chanted for several hours. The treatment's aim is to extract that
substance and to endow the patient with magic power.
Legends and historical traditions both attest the extraordinary prestige
enjoyed by some shamans of old who were leaders of their tribes. After
receiving their inspiration, these great men retired into the wilderness,
where they lived on celestial food. By constant dancing some Apapocuva-
Guarani shamans gradually subjugated their animal soul, strengthening
their ayvucue, or peaceful soul, until they could fly toward the heavenly
Land- Without-Evil.
Among ancient Guarani great medicine men worked miracles by their
chants. With their saliva they caused death. They were strong enough
to drag a whole tribe across a large river. They claimed absolute control
of all natural phenomena, including stars. After their death, their bones,
kept as relics in luxurious hammocks hung in special huts, were worshiped
and consulted as oracles. Ordinary shamans added to their prestige by
sleight of hand.
Shamans are not only responsible for the religious life, but also inter-
fere in the administration of justice. Whenever a succession of misfor-
tunes is imputed to witchcraft, the shaman unmasks the sorcerer, who is
savagely killed. The shamans' political power derives, naturally, from
their prestige and from the fear which they inspire. Usually, witchcraft
is blamed on a neighboring tribe. Sorcerers kill their victims by practic-
ing witchcraft on their exuviae.
MYTHOLOGY
The high-sounding names of the main characters in the Apapocuva-
Guarani mythology tinge it with a solemnity quite foreign to the versions
of the same motifs collected elsewhere.
The story of the creation is told in impressive terms. At the beginning
there was darkness, and the Eternal Bats fought in the night. Our Great
Father found himself and created the earth, which he propped on the
Eternal Cross. With him was a companion, Our-Father-Who-Knows-
Everything, Our Great Father made a woman. Our Mother, whom he
Vol. 3] THE GUARANI— METRAUX 93
generously shared with his subordinate. Our Mother conceived the
Twins, Our Elder Brother, and Our Younger Brother, the former by the
Creator and the latter, who was weak and stupid, by the Creator's com-
panion. From that point the Apapocuva version follows more or less
the Tupinamha sequence of motifs. The mother is killed by the Jaguars,
on which the Twins later take their revenge. Our Great Father's Son
manifests his superiority by always taking the initiative in any adventure
and by repairing the blunders of his younger brother. The Twins are
secondary culture heroes who complete the work of the Creator. Our
Elder Brother steals fire from the vultures on behalf of mankind and
teaches the medicine dances to the Anan, who in turn train the men. Our
Elder Brother still resides in the zenith taking care of mankind in a very
indefinite way. He will participate in the final destruction of the world
by removing one of the props on which it lies.
In a Pah' myth, fire is acquired by the Celestial Rhea.
The Anan demons, who are the constant victims of the practical jokes
played by the Twins, are purely folkloric characters, with the exception of
a single Anan who devours the souls of the dead when they pass by his
hammock.
The Are have a myth about a flood (Borba, 1904, pp. 61-64) from
which a single man escaped by climbing on top of a palm tree. The sapa-
curu birds created land again by dropping piles of earth into the water.
The man was taken on a raft to a place where many women were bathing.
He took a woman for himself, and their descendants are the Are.
Cosmology. — The Sun, as a deity, is called Our Father and is distin-
guished from the material light and heat which he produces. Sun and
Moon are sons of the Creator ; the Moon was smeared with genipa when
he had homosexual relations with his brother.
Eclipses are caused by the Eternal Bat — according to the ancient
Guarani, by the Celestial Jaguar — which gnaws the Sun or the Moon.
The Apapocuva have a very pessimistic outlook on the future of the
world ; they are firmly convinced that its end is near. Very soon Our
Great Father will set the earth on fire, unleashing the Eternal Bat and
the Blue Jaguar which will destroy the stars and mankind.
The Pan identify the Milky Way with the Celestial Rhea; when the
bird will have finished eating two heaps of food (Magellanic Clouds)
it will devour mankind (Lehmann-Nitsche, 1936-37).
MESSIANIC AND REVIVALISTIC MOVEMENTS
From the period of European Conquest to the present day, the Guarani
have been periodically stirred up by religious crises similar to messianic
revivals in other parts of the world. Either a prophet would start a
religious and political evolution by announcing the end of Spanish rule
94 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.B. Bull. 143
and the approach of a new golden age ; or else some tribe would leave its
territory in quest of the Land- Without-Evil. According to missionary
accounts, shamans often represented themselves as the Lords of the
Universe and preached a holy war against the intruders. These messiahs
performed rites and expressed ideas that, like the redeemer concept, in-
cluded many borrowings from Christianity.
During the last century, three Guarani groups, the Apapocuva, the
Tanygud, and the Oguauiva, fearing an imminent destruction of the world
announced by their shamans, desperately attempted to reach the Land-
Without-Evil, where there is abundance of all good things and eternal
life. Since most authorities located the paradise somewhere in the east,
beyond the sea, these migrations were directed toward the Atlantic Coast.
In 1910, a group of Apapocuva sought to lose weight through dancing,
so as to fly over the ocean.
This great hope, which has so deeply influenced the destiny of these
Indians, is based on a myth which describes the first destruction of the
universe by fire and water. A shaman forced his people to dance day and
night so as to open the way to the heavenly country. Modern Guarani
often tried to emulate this act, irrespective of repeated failures, which
they blamed on ritual mistakes or on the use of foreign foods. The leaders
of these movements were always famous shamans surrounded by an aura
of mystery.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ambrosetti, 1895 a, 1895 b, 1896; Azara, 1809, 1904; Baldus, 1929; Bertoni, 1920,
1922; Blanco, 1931; Bode, 1918; Borba, 1904; Cardiel, 1900; Cartas Anuas, 1927-29;
Charlevoix, 1757; Comentarios de Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca (see Pedro Her-
nandez, 1852); Dobrizhoffer, 1784; Fishbach, 1929; Hernandez, Pedro, 1852; Her-
nandez, Pablo, 1913; Ihering, 1895, 1904, 1906; Jarque, 1900; Koenigswald, Von,
1908; Kunert, 1890, 1891, 1892; Kunike, 1911; Lehmann-Nitsche, 1936-37; Linn6,
1936 ; Lothrop, 1932 ; Loukotka, 1929 ; Lozano, 1873-75 ; Mayntzhusen, 1912 ; Medina,
J. T., 1908; Metraux, 1927, 1928 a, 1928 b, 1932; Meyer, 1896; Moreno, 1926; Miiller,
1934-35; Muratori, 1754; Netto, 1885; Nimuendaju, 1914 a; Outes, 1917, 1918;
Ramirez in J. T. Medina, 1908 (also Ramirez, Luis, 1888) ; Rengger, 1835; Ruiz de
Montoya, 1876 (1640), 1892; Schmidel, 1903; Schmidt, M., 1932; Serrano, 1936;
Strelnikov, 1928; Techo, 1673, 1897; Torres, L. M., 1913; Ullrich, 1906; Vellard,
1934, 1937, 1939 a; Vogt, 1904.
THE TUPINAMBA
By Alfred Metraux
TRIBAL DIVISIONS
Tupinamba. — This name is applied here to all the Indians speaking a
Tupi-Guarani dialect, who in the 16th century were masters of the Bra-
zilian shore from the mouth of the Amazon River to Cananea, in the
south of the State of Sao Paulo (map 1, No. 1 ; see Volume 1, map 7).
Though linguistically and culturally closely related, these Indians were
divided into a great many tribes that waged merciless war against one
another. Most of these groups were given different names by the Por-
tuguese and French colonists, but the term Tupinamba was applied to
the tribes of such widely separated regions as Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, and
Maranhao. Because these are the best-known tribes, we shall, for con-
venience, apply to all of them the term Tupinamba; we shall, however,
carefully distinguish each subdivision when defining its geographical
position.
Coastal tribes. — From north to south we have :
Tupinamba. — Occupying, along with small infiltrations of Teremembe
(Handbook, vol. 1, p. 573), the whole coast between the Parnahyba
(Parnaiba) and the Para Rivers at the end of the 16th century (lat. l''-4°
S., long. 42°-48° W.). Approximately 12,000 lived on the Island of
Maranhao in 27 villages. In three other districts, Tapuytapera, Comma,
and Caite, there were about 35 villages, with a total population of approxi-
mately 27,000. There were also numerous villages along the Pindare,
Mearim, and Itapecuru Rivers. On the Para River their last villages were
far upstream, near the Jacunda and Pacaja Rivers.
Potiguara (Potivara, Cannibals, Cannibaliers). — ^A large tribe on the
coast between the Parnahyba (Parnaiba) and Paraiba (Parahyba)
Rivers. On the mainland, they reached the Serra de Copaoba and the
Serra da Ibiapaba. (Lat. 5°-8° S., long. 36°-38° W.)
At the end of the 16th century, the Potigunra were expelled from the
region of the Parahyba by the Portuguese allied to the Tabajara, but many
villages of Ceara accepted the Portuguese rule. Cruelly treated by Pero
Coelho in 1603, they banded with the Dutch and waged war against the
Portuguese until 1654. At that time, the survivors of the tribe who had
not fled into the bush were placed in missions by the Jesuits. The Poti-
guara, in spite of their former alliance with the French and the Dutch,
became loyal allies of the Portuguese, whom they accompanied in many
95
96 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
expeditions. They were rewarded by grants of lands. Their names disap-
pear in the 18th century (Studart Filho, 1931, pp. 91-99).
Caete (Caite). — On the Atlantic shore between the Paraiba and the
Sao Francisco Rivers (lat. 8°-ir S., long. 36° W.).
Tupinamba. — On the Atlantic shore from the Sao Francisco River to
Camamu, in the south (lat. 11°-15° S., long. 37°-39° W.).
Tupinikin (Tupiniguin, Mar gay a, Tuaya). — Occupying only a narrow
strip of the coast from Camamu to the Sao Mateus (Cricare) River, per-
haps reaching Espirito Santo in the south (lat. 16°-21° S., long. 39"-
40° W.).
Timimino (Tomomyno). — In the south of the State of Espirito Santo
and on the lower course and islands of the Paraiba River (lat. 22° S.,
long. 41° W.). The Timimino were constantly at war with the Tupinamba
of Rio de Janeiro.
Tupinamba (Tamoyo). — Masters of the coast from Cabo de Sao Tome
to the Bay of Angra dos Reis and even perhaps to CairoQu Point (lat.
23°-24° S., long. 42°-45° W.). Their inland limits are unknown, but it
is likely that they had villages on the upper Parahyba River.
Ararape. — This name is given by Cardim to the Tupinamba of the
hinterland of Rio de Janeiro.
Tupinakin (Tupiniguin, Tupi, Tabayara). — These southern neighbors
and bitter enemies of the Tupinamba of Rio de Janeiro were the early
inhabitants of the modern State of Sao Paulo. They were on the coast
from Angra dos Reis to Cananea. They had villages on the Serra
Paranapiacaba and in the vast region between the modern city of Sao
Paulo and the Tiete River. (Lat. 24°-26° S., long. 45°-48° W.) Some
groups probably lived near long. 50° W.
Inland tribes. — The following tribes lived in the sertao, i.e., the region
inland from the Brazilian coast :
The name Tobayara is without any doubt a derogatory term meaning
enemy. Because it was given by many Tupi tribes to their hostile neigh-
bors, and because different tribes appear in the literature under the same
name, there is much confusion. Tobayara has been applied to: (1) the
TM/>f-speaking Indians east of the Mearim River, State of Maranhao;
(2) the Indians of the Serra da Ibiapaba; (3) the TM/»f-speaking Indians
living west of the Potiguara tribe ; (4) the Tupi Indians of the Pernam-
buco region; (5) the first Tupi invaders of Bahia; (6) Indians in
the State of Espirito Santo; (7) the Tupinakin of the State of Sao
Paulo. All seven of these Indian groups lived inland and were called
Tobayara by the Tupinamba of the coast. Because most of these Tobay-
ara are also known under other names, we shall restrict Tobayara to the
Tw/'i-speaking Indians of Maranhao (lat. 4° S., long. 42° W.).
Tabayara {Tobajara, Miari engilare, Miarigois). — Their native terri-
tory was the Serra Grande of Ceara (Serra da Ibiapaba), where they
Vol. 3] THE TUPINAMBA— METRAUX 97
extended to Camocim. Attacked by Pedro Coelho at the beginning of
the 17th century, the inhabitants of 70 of their villages migrated to the
region of Maranhao. They settled on the upper Mearim River, where
they were known to the French as "Indians of the Mearim" (Miarigois) .
The emigrants disappeared as a result of their wars against the French
and the "Tapuya" and of smallpox epidemics. In 1637, the Tabayara
allied themselves to the Dutch to wage war against the Portuguese of
Maranhao. Their Christianization was undertaken about 1656, but was
soon interrupted by a rebellion which lasted until 1673. Then again the
Jesuits established missions among them. Their name appears in ofificial
documents until 1720.
Tupina (Tohayara, Tupiguae). — Scattered in the woods from north of
the Sao Francisco River to the Camamu River in the south (lat. 11°-15°
S., long. 37°-42° W.). Their eastern neighbors were the Caete, the
Tupinamha, and the Tupinikin.
Amoipira. — A detached branch of the Tupinamha, living in the hinter-
land of Bahia on the left side of the Sao Francisco River (lat. 7°-14° S.,
long. 39°-43° W.).
Tupinamha tribes that are mentioned in the literature but cannot be
localized exactly are: The Viatan, formerly living in the region of Pern-
ambuco but exterminated by the Potiguara and the Portuguese ; the Apiga-
pigtanga; the Muriapigtanga in the vicinity of the Tupina; the Guaracaio
or Itati, enemies of the Tupinikin; the Arahoyara, and the Rariguora,
whose names only are known.
HISTORICAL MIGRATIONS OF THE TUPINAMBA
The various descriptions of the Tupinamha culture, though concerned
with Indians as widely apart as those of the Maranhao region and of
Rio de Janeiro, harmonize in the smallest details. Such uniformity among
groups scattered over an enormous area suggests a comparatively recent
separation. This view is fully supported by historical traditions and
events that occurred after European colonization. The Tupi tribes seem
to have dispersed from a common center at a relatively recent date.
Their migrations ended only in the second half of the 16th century. The
earlier inhabitants of the Brazilian coast from the Amazon River to the
Rio de la Plata were a great many tribes ambiguously called "Tapuya"
by the Tupinamha and the Portuguese. At the time of the discovery of
Brazil they had been pushed into the woods but still remained near the
coast waging war against the Tupinamha invaders, whose intrusion was
so recent that they had not had time to exterminate or assimilate the
former masters of the coastal region. Many "Tapuya^' had remained
in possession of the shore, forming ethnic islands among the TM/^f-speak-
ing tribes (Handbook, vol. 1, pp. 553-556; map 1, No. 18; map 7). The
Terememhe wandered along the coast of Maranhao. The Waitaka of
98 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
Espirito Santo and the Wayana (Goyana) of Sao Paulo are listed among
the Coastal Indians by our sources. Tupinamba tradition held that the
non-Tw/'f-speaking Quirigma were the first inhabitants of Bahia, and that
the Aenaguig preceded the Tupinikin in their habitat. The Maraca of the
hinterland of Bahia were an enclave among Tupinamba tribes.
The only invasions historically recorded are those which took place in
the regions of Bahia, Pernambuco, Maranhao, and Para. The first migra-
tion of the Tupinamba (in a wider sense) to the coast is that of the
Tupina (known also as Tobayara) . They drove the "Tapnya" from the
seashore, but later were forced to relinquish their conquests to the Tupi-
namba proper and settled in the hinterland. A branch of the Tupinamba
that had been warring against the "Tapuya" did not reach the coast in time
and remained on the Sao Francisco River, where they were known as
Amoipira. The Tupinikin of Porto Seguro migrated from the north and
may have been the southern wing of the same Tupinamba invasion.
The region of Maranhao was settled in the second half of the 16th
century by Tupinamba from Pernambuco, where they had been defeated
and driven back by the Portuguese colonists.
Several typical messianic outbursts took place in the second part of the
16th century when the various Tupinamba tribes were forced to yield
ground to the Portuguese and were being either wholly outrooted or
enslaved. Here, as elsewhere in the New World, these crises were
prompted by shamans or prophets who announced the return of the mythi-
cal ages and the disappearance of the white scourge. Following a deeply
engrained tradition among the Tupi tribes, these prophets exhorted them
to depart for the "land-of-immortality" where the Culture hero had retired
after his earthly adventure. In 1605, a party of Tupinamba led by a
prophet, whom they worshiped as a deity, left the region of Pernambuco
to invade the territory of Maranhao, which then was held by the French.
The invaders were defeated by the Portiguara and the French at the Serra
da Ibiapaba. Earlier, a group of Potiguara also set out on a journey to
look for the Earthly Paradise, at the prompting of a shaman who pretended
to be a resurrected ancestor.
About 1540, several thousands of Tupinamba left the coast of Brazil
in quest of the "land-of-immortality-and-perpetual-rest" and, in 1549,
arrived at Chachapoyas in Peru. As they mentioned having passed through
a region where gold was abundant, their reports induced the Spaniards
to organize several expeditions to discover El Dorado (Metraux, 1927).
The Tupinambarana, discovered by Acuiia (1891) on the Amazonian
island that bears their name, were also Tupinamba of Pernambuco who
had deserted their home country to escape Portuguese tyranny. They
traveled up the Amazon River, thence up the Madeira River, finally coming
in contact with Spanish settlements in eastern Bolivia. Vexed by the
Spanish colonists, they returned down the Madeira River to its mouth
Vol. 3] THE TUPINAMBA— METRAUX 99
and settled the island of Tupinambarana. In 1690 they seem to have been
on the decline, for the Guayarise had moved into their territory (Fritz,
1922, p. 72).
CULTURE
SUBSISTENCE ACTIVITIES
Farming. — The Tiipinamha drew a large part of their subsistence from
farming. Manioc, especially the poisonous variety, was their staple ; second
in importance was maize, five varieties of which were cultivated, one of
them being particularly useful to travelers because it remained tender for
a long period.
Other crops listed in early sources are: Cara {Dioscorea sp.), mangara
{Xanthosoma majaffa), taia (taioba, Xanthosoma sp.),^ sweet potatoes,
lima beans, kidney beans, pumpkins (Cucurbita moschata) , peanuts, pine-
apples, and pepper. Bananas were grown on a large scale soon after the
discovery of Brazil. Sugarcane and sorghum {Sorghum vulgare) were
also eagerly adopted from the first White colonists. Several trees, such
as cashews and papayas, may have been cultivated in the fields and near
the huts.
The Tupinamba grew several nonfood plants : gourds, calabash trees,
tobacco, cotton, urucu, and probably genipa.
The Tupinamba cleared farm land in the forests near their villages,
felling the trees with stone axes and burning them a few months later.
The ashes served as fertilizer. Women did all planting and harvesting.
At the beginning of the dry season, they set out manioc cuttings and
sliced tubers, and planted maize and beans in holes made with pointed
sticks. They did no other work except some occasional weeding. They
allowed bean vines to climb on charred tree trunks but sometimes added
sticks as auxiliary props. To increase the cotton yield, they thinned the
trees twice a year. Only the women who had planted peanuts might
harvest them, a task which entailed special ceremonies.
Collecting wild foods. — The Tupinamba supplemented their diet with
many wild fruits and nuts, such as jucara, mangaba (Hancornia speciosd),
cashew (Anacardium occidentale) , sapucaia {Lecythis ollaria), araqa
orguave (Psidium variabile), mocujes (Couma rigida), araticus {Rollinia
exalbida), hoyriti (Diplothemium maritimum), jaboticaba {Myrciaria
cauliflora), acaja {Spondias purpurea), pindo palm (Orbignya speciosa),
and aricuri {Cocos coronata), etc. The Tupinamba discovered the watery,
edible roots of the imbii tree (Spondias tuberosa) by the sound made when
striking the ground with a stick. Like the Chaco Indians, they ate the
fruits and roots of caraguata {Bromelia sp.).
The Tupinamba were fond of the igas, or tanajuras ant, with a fat
abdomen, which they roasted and ate. Women lured these ants from
1 There is, however, apparently some confusion between mangara {Xanthosoma mafaffa) and
taioba.
653333—47—10
100 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
their recesses with magic spells. They also collected hundreds of guara
(Eudocimus ruber) eggs and roasted them on babracots in order to keep
them as a food reserve. These tribes eagerly sought honey, not only for
its food value but because the wax was important in their industries. They
gathered quantities of oysters {Ostrea rhisophorae), which occur abund-
antly along the coast where they cling to the roots of mangrove trees.
Many people relied even more on sea food than on game. Whole villages
went to the seashore during certain months to gather oysters, which they
ate or preserved by smoking them on babracots. Many of the sambaquis
(shell mounds) of the Atlantic Coast (see vol. 1, p. 401) are formed of
Tupinamba kitchen refuse.
Hunting. — The chase was a major masculine occupation ; Indians wish-
ing to eulogize their country declared that it abounded in game — deer,
wild pigs, monkeys, agouti, armadillos, forest hens, pigeons, etc. But
recorded hunting methods are neither numerous nor elaborate, and
collective hunting is mentioned only in connection with certain ratlike
rodents, which were surrounded by a party of men and forced into a
previously dug ditch, where they were clubbed to death. Most hunting
was carried on by individuals or by small groups of men.
The hunting weapons were bows and arrows. Long bows were gen-
erally made of hard black wood — ^pao d'arco {Tecoma impetiginosa) , ayri
palm {Astroearyum ayri) — or of jacaranda or sapucaia. The front part
was convex, the string side flat. The stave was sometimes partially covered
with a basketry sheath and trimmed with feathers. The bow-string was
of cotton or tucum fiber {Astroearyum eampestre), sometimes painted
green or red. The arrows had four main types of head : ( 1 ) a lanceolate
bamboo (taquara) blade with sharp edges for killing large animals; (2) a
simple tapering piece of hard wood, which was barbed for most arrows ;
(3) a head like the last but tipped with a bone splinter, a fish bone, or a
spur of a sting ray that formed a barb ; (4) a wooden knob to stun birds
and monkeys. Fishing arrows will be mentioned later.
Arrow shafts were made of straight reeds (Gynerimn sagittatum) with-
out knobs. The feathering was of the "East Brazilian," or tangential type :
Two feathers with their barbs cut off along one side were laid spirally
against the shaft and fixed with cotton thread at their extremities. The
terminal nock seems to have been reinforced with a wooden plug.
The Tupinamba quickly learned to train the dogs, which they received
from Europeans soon after the Discovery, to hunt game, especially agouti.
They beat jaguars from the bush with packs of dogs.
Caimans, which were eaten with relish, were first shot with arrows and
then killed with clubs. Small animals, such as lizards, were caught almost
exclusively by children.
Blinds, traps, and snares. — Large blinds for watching and shooting
birds were built in treetops.
Vol. 3] THE TUPINAMBA— MBTRAUX 101
Jaguars and tapirs were caught in concealed pit falls dug across their
main paths. A more elaborate jaguar trap consisted of an enclosure of
strong poles. In entering it, the animal stepped on a contrivance that
caused a heavy log to fall and crush him. Jaguars also were captured by
means of spring snares. A noose attached to a bent pole — the spring —
was laid open on the animal's path. If the jaguar stepped near it, his
weight caused a trigger to fall which allowed the pole to spring upright
and pulled the noose up around one of his paws. The jaguar was then
shot with arrows, whereupon apologies were made to its carcass lest it
take revenge on its murderers. Small traps, snares, and nets were em-
ployed to catch small mammals and birds. Parrots were lassoed with a
noose on the end of a pole.
Fishing. — Living by the ocean and on numerous rivers along the
Brazilian coast, the Tupinamba had access to large supplies of sea food.
During certain times of the year they lived almost exclusively on fish.
After the rainy season, the Tupinamba of Maranhao left their villages for
several weeks to camp (fig. 6, bottom) along the shore near shallow
lagoons that swarmed with fish. Enormous quantities of parati fish
(Mugil brasiliensis) were also caught in August while swimming upstream
to spawn. This month was, therefore, a propitious time for war expedi-
tions, the rivers yielding a reliable supply of food. Shoals of fish were
driven into empty canoes by striking the water with sticks. Fish, if
numerous, were also dipped out with sieves and gourds, especially at
night when attracted by torchlight. Men armed with fish nets formed a
barrier against which fish were driven by striking the water. Rivers and
coves were often closed with weirs made of branches or with dams of
stones. Fishermen standing on the dam scooped up the fish with dip
nets. Funnel-shaped baskets were placed in running water at narrow
passages where the fish would be forced to enter them and be caught. The
Tupinamba were skillful at shooting fish either with arrows tipped with
several hardwood prongs or with harpoon arrows. They also killed fish
by poisoning calm waters with the juices of several creepers, such as
timbo (Dahlstedtia pinnata) and the tingui (Tephrosia toxicaria). Na-
tive hooks, which disappeared rapidly after European contact, were made
ot' thorns; fishlines, of tucuma (Bactris setosa) fibers. The Tupinamba
were said to be such good swimmers that they could even dive and catch
fish with their hands.
Domestication. — Pets, numerous in any village, were mainly birds and
a few such animals as wild pigs, agouti, monkeys, and even armadillos
and caimans. Certain birds, such as ducks, a kind of turkey, and pigeons,
may actually have been domesticated. These ducks, however, were not
eaten lest their flesh cause a person to become slow. Tame parrots were
taught to speak and became an important article of trade with Europeans,
but also had a certain economic value in native culture, for they were
102 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
plucked every year, and their feathers were made into ornaments. The
Tupinamba changed the natural colors of the feathers of green parrots by
"tapirage." By rubbing with the blood of a frog (Rana tinctoriaf) the
sores left by plucking the birds, they caused the new feathers to grow
yellow or red. These Indians eagerly received domesticated fowls brought
to them by Europeans and unquestionably aided their diffusion in eastern
South America. They never ate these fowls, but plucked them, especially
the white ones, as they did native birds. The feathers were dyed in a
decoction of Brazil wood (Caesalpinia echinata). When the Tupinamba
received their first dogs from the Portuguese, they called them "jaguars."
They grew so fond of them that the women carried the puppies like
babies. The Tupinamba also kept European pigs, but did not care for
their flesh.
Food preparation. — Poisonous manioc required lengthy preparation
before consumption. The tubers were peeled with shells and grated on
rough-surfaced stones or on special graters, i.e., boards in which stone
chips or fishbones were imbedded at close intervals. The poisonous juice
was extracted by squeezing the manioc in a long basketry tube (tipiti).
Afterward, the pulp was sifted and made into flour ("hard flour") by
constant stirring while it roasted in a large pottery platter. For wafers
(beiju), the mass simply was spread in a more or less thick layer on the
same utensil.
Another kind of flour ("water flour") was made from tubers which had
been soaked in running water for many days until they began to decay.
They were then crushed by hand, strained in the tipiti, and passed through
a sieve. The pulp was baked as before. A flour called carima was obtained
from tubers that were rotted, soaked in water, smoked on a babracot,
pounded in a wooden mortar, and carefully sifted. The famous war flour
was a combination of "water flour" and carima baked for a long time until
dried and well roasted. This flour, which would keep for more than a
year, was carried by travelers and warriors in waterproof satchels plaited
of palm leaves.
Aypi, or sweet manioc, could be eaten directly after boiling or roasting,
but was cultivated mainly for brewing mead. It was also made into
various kinds of flour. The juice of both species of manioc, if left in the
sun for a while, deposited its starch, which was baked and eaten. Other
tubers, such as sweet potatoes, card, mangara, and taia, required a less
elaborate treatment, being either boiled or roasted. Maize, mainly con-
sumed in the form of flour, was also roasted or boiled. Peanuts were
broiled and roasted. The name "mingao" designated any mush made of
manioc or other flour. Mangara and taia leaves were eaten as greens.
Meat and fish were roasted or boiled. The broth was often mixed
with manioc flour. Small fish, wrapped in leaves, were cooked under
Vol. 3] THE TUPINAMBA— METRAUX 103
ashes. Any surplus of game or fish was dried and smoked for about
24 hours on a huge babracot, a rectangular four-legged grill or platform
made of sticks, under which a slow fire burned. Another method for
preserving meat and fish was to pound it into a sort of pemmican or flour.
Condiments comprised mainly several species of pepper and occasion-
ally a grass called nhamby (coentro do sertao, Eryngium foetidum.).
Salt was obtained by evaporating sea water in ditches dug near the shore
or by boiling it in large pots. It was also made by boiling lye made of
palm-wood ashes. Salt and ground pepper were generally mixed, and
every morsel of food was dipped in this powder before being eaten.
The Tupiimmba ate in silence, all squatting on the ground around a
big dish, except the head of the extended family, who lay in his hammock.
They were expert at throwing into their mouths manioc flour, which
accompanied every dish. Many persons washed before and after every
meal.
VILLAGES AND HOUSES
Tupinamba villages consisted of from 4 to 8 huge communal houses
built around a square plaza., where the social and religious life of the
community centered (fig. 6, top). Houses varied in length from about
50 to 500 feet (15 to 150 m.), the average being about 250 to 300 feet
(75 to 90 m.), and in width from 30 to 50 feet (9 to 15 m.). The height
was about 12 feet (3.5 m.). Thirty families, that is, more than 100 people,
could live in a dwelling ; some houses even had as many as 200 occupants.
Houses were constructed on a rectangular ground plan. The roof was
arched or vaulted, apparently descending to the ground, thus also form-
ing the side walls — hence the frequent comparison in the ancient litera-
ture to overturned boats. The structure was thatched with leaves of
pindo palm, patiaba, or capara {Geonoma sp.) artfully sewn or woven
together so as to be entirely waterproof. There was a low door at each
end and one or sometimes two on the side. In the interior, the quarters
of each family were marked off by two wall posts. The family ham-
mocks were suspended from additional posts. Possessions, such as cala-
bashes, pots, weapons, and provisions, were stored in the rafters or on
small platforms. Each family kept a fire burning day and night in its
compartment. The center of the hut was left free as a communal passage-
way. The head of the extended family, his relatives, and slaves were
accommodated in the middle or in some other privileged part of the long
house. Hammocks, carved benches, and pottery of all sizes and shapes
comprised the usual household equipment.
Villages were located on hilltops, where the air was not too stifling.
Those exposed to enemy attacks were fortified with a double stockade
(fig. 6, top), having embrasures for archers. The access to the village
was defended with pitfalls and caltrops.
The Tupinamba shifted their villages when the house thatching began
104
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
Figure b.—Tupinamba palisaded village {top) and camp {bottom).
(After Staden, 1557.)
Vol. 3]
THE TUPINAMBA— METRAUX
105
to rot or when the soil of their cultivated clearings was exhausted. They
did not remain in one place more than 4 or 5 years. A new village was
generally built near the old one and retained the same name.
DRESS AND ORNAMENTS
In daily life men and women were entirely naked, except that adult
men, especially old men, wore a penis sheath of leaves. Young men
contented themselves with a ligature round the prepuce.
Feather ornaments. — In contrast to this lack of dress, ornaments were
numerous and showy. On their heads men wore high diadems made of
the tails of parrots or other bright birds or bonnets of small feathers
fastened in the knots of a cotton net. The feather fabric was so compact
that it suggested velvet. Some of these bonnets fell down in the back
like long, narrow capes (fig. 7, left). The most spectacular feather orna-
a
b
Figure 7. — Tupinamba headdress and ceremonial war club, (b. Approximately 1/14
actual size.) (Redrawn from Metraux, 1928 a.)
106
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS
[B.A.E. Bull. 143
ments were long, wide cloaks composed entirely of red feathers of the
guara (Guara rubra). Necklaces, bracelets, and anklets were also
made of bright feathers. Many feather ornaments, especially cloaks, have
found their way to European museums. The best feathered specimens
were collected by the Dutch in their early Brazilian possessions, and are
now in the National Museum of Copenhagen. For festive occasions or
Figure 8. — Tupinamba dress. Top: Warriors with ceremonial club and feather-plume
decoration. Bottom: Labrets. (After Staden, 1557.)
Vol. 3]
THE TUPINAMBA— METRAUX
107
for war, men suspended on their buttocks an ornament of ostrich plumes
in the "form of a large round ball to which feathers were attached" (figs.
8, top; 9, left).
The love for feathers was so great that men and even women glued
them to their heads with wax or sprinkled chopped feathers all over
their bodies, which they had previously coated with gum or honey. Often
they substitued particles of red or yellow wood for feathers. They also
pasted with wax on their temples patches of toucan skin covered with
yellow feathers. Feathers, after use, were carefully collected, cleaned,
and stored in bamboo tubes sealed with wax.
Figure 9. — Tupinamba ceremonial objects. Left: Warrior's feather plumes worn on
hips. Right: Ceremonial club and cord. (After Staden, 1557.)
Necklaces and garters. — Chiefs and important men had necklaces of
round or square shell (Strombus pugilis) beads so long — some were 30
feet (9m.) in length — that they had to be coiled a great many times
round their necks. Others had strings of black wooden beads {Astro-
caryum ayri). Warriors displayed necklaces strung with the teeth —
sometimes as many as 2,(XX) to 3,000 — of their victims. Women used
similar necklaces, but ordinarily wore them wound around their arms.
Certain women's bracelets are described as a careful assemblage of small
pieces of shell imbricated like fish scales. Belts of shell beads are also
mentioned in the literature. A most precious male heirloom was a cres-
centic pendant 6 inches to 1 foot (15 to 30 cm.) long, consisting of well-
polished bone and shell plates worn suspended round the neck by a cotton
thread.
Men and women wore one or two broad cotton garters under the
knee, men trimming theirs with feathers. In the region of Bahia, these
108 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
garters were bound tightly around little girl's legs to make the calves
bulge in later life.
Hairdressing. — Neither sex tolerated any hair on the body. They
either pulled it out with their fingers, or shaved it with a bamboo splinter
or a quartz knife. With the same instrument men shaved their foreheads
back to the level of the ears. Women generally allowed their hair to hang
loose down their backs, but, when at work, they tied it up over the head
in a knot or divided it into one or two bundles wrapped with a cotton
fillet. Combs were made from a fruit with long spikes. The only
cosmetic was oil extracted from several fruits, generally those of palm
trees (uucuuba, Myristica sebijera). The natives washed their hair with
a root or the skins of the Sapindus divaricatus fruit, which makes suds
when soaked in water and squeezed between the fingers.
Labrets. — When a Tupinamba boy was 5 or 6 years old, his lower lip
was pierced, and henceforth he wore in the hole either a plain wooden
plug or a conical bone stick or a shell. Later in life he substituted a green
or white stone (beryl, amazonite, chrysoprase, chalcedony, quartz, or
crystal) shaped like a T or a large button. A few men, generally chiefs
or medicine men, perforated their cheeks for similar ornaments, some wear-
ing as many as seven (fig. 8).
Ear ornaments. — Women inserted in their ear lobes a shell cylinder
long enough to reach their shoulders or even their breasts. Men wore
thin bone sticks, similar to bone labrets, in their ears. Some men also
wore small bone or wooden sticks through the wings of the nose.
Tattooing. — Both sexes were tattooed. Charcoal or certain plant juices
were rubbed into wounds made with a rodent's tooth or a shell. A man's
body was covered with capricious designs, which were extended each time
he killed a man in war or sacrificed a prisoner. Judging from a contem-
porary drawing, such tattooing marks formed regular geometrical patterns,
not unlike designs on pottery. Women were tattooed only at puberty.
Painting. — On every important occasion, such as a drinking bout, a
funeral, or the slaughtering of a prisoner, men and women painted their
bodies. The favorite pigments were black, made of genipa, and red, made
of urucii. Black and red paint, alone or alternating, covered large surfaces
of the body, especially the lower limbs. Men and women entrusted them-
selves to skillful artists, generally women, who traced on their persons
artistic and capricious patterns consisting of checkers, spirals, waves, and
other elements similar to those painted on pottery. Blue and yellow,
though less common, were used on the face in combination with the two
other pigments.
TRANSPORTATION
Carrying devices. — Heavy loads, such as crops, were carried on the
back in elongated baskets that were open on the top and outer side. These
were suspended from the forehead by a tumpline.
Vol. 3 J THE TUPINAMBA— METRAUX 109
Children were carried straddling the hip, and supported by a sling
manufactured like a small hammock.
Boats. — The Tupinavnba had three types of watercraft: (1) Dugouts,
(2) bark canoes, (3) rafts. Dugouts were hollowed out of huge logs by
the laborious process of burning and scraping the charred wood away.
The Tupinaniba of Bahia could finish a canoe in a few days by using the
ubiragara tree (Ficus doliaria or Cavanillesia arbor ea), which has a soft
inside. Large dugouts were manned by 30 to 60 men.
To build a bark canoe, they erected a platform around a suitable tree,
peeled the bark off in one large piece, and heated it to bend it "in front
and behind, but first lashed it together with wood so that it did not stretch."
This craft, sometimes 40 feet (12 m.) long, held from 25 to 30 persons.
Like the dugouts, these canoes were used for raids along the coast.
The Tupinaniba paddled their canoes standing up. The blades were
lanceolate in shape, the handles without cross bars or knobs. The Caete
navigated the Sao Francisco River, and even along the coast as far as
Bahia, on huge rafts or balsas made of reed bundles tied up with creepers
and connected with transverse sticks. Such rafts could easily transport 10
to 12 Indians.
Fishermen sat on small rafts (piperi), made of four or five thick round
pieces of light wood bound together with creepers, and propelled them
with a flat stick.
MANUFACTURES
Miscellaneous tools. — Trees were felled with stone axes. Ax heads
were hafted with a withy bent double around their butts and held fast
with bast. Stone chisels, similarly hafted, served for carving. Rodent
teeth and wild pig tusks, "bound between two sticks," served for boring.
Shells or bamboo splinters were employed as knives. They polished
bows with the rough leaves of mbaiba (Cecropia adenopus) .
Basketry. — Basketry included sieves, fire fans, containers of different
types, and perhaps also fish traps. Temporary baskets were made of
plaited palm leaves. Those intended for longer service were manufactured
of creepers (Serjania or Paullinia) split into thin strips, which were
twilled, yielding geometrical patterns when the strips were black and white.
Spinning and weaving. — Cotton threads were spun with a spindle —
a stick with a flat, circular wooden whorl. Women rolled the spindle along
the thigh to set it in motion and then dropped it. Ropes were twisted
of cotton and other fibers ; or were sometimes plaited for ceremonial use.
The Tupiimmba knew only the simplest technique of twined weaving,
which was used for the fabric of the hammocks. The warp strands were
wrapped horizontally around two vertical posts and twined together with
double wefts. Some fabrics were woven so tightly as to appear to be true
woven cloth.
110
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS
[B.A.E. Bull. 143
Pottery. — Tupinamba pottery was highly praised by early voyagers,
but the few extant specimens do not show unusual technical or artistic
skill. Bowls, dishes, and vases had simple forms : round, oval, and even
square (fig. 10). They were often painted on the inside with red and
black linear motifs on a white background and were also glazed with resin
(for instance, the resin of the icica, Protium brasiliense). The most con-
spicuous pots were huge jars, with a capacity of about 14 gallons (50
liters), for storing beer. These and cooking pots often were decorated
with thumbnail impressions made in the wet clay, an embellishment typical
J-fln^lrrn
Figure 10, — Tupinamba and Guarani pottery, a, b, d, e, Tupinamba-, others, Guarani.
(Redrawn from Metraux, 1928 a.)
Vol. 3] THE TUPINAMBA— METRAUX 111
of many Tupi tribes. Pottery was baked in a shallow pit covered with
fuel. The best pot makers were the old women. Tradition had it that a
pot which was not baked by the person who modeled it would surely crack.
Fire making. — Fire was generated by a drill and activated by a fire
fan. Torches were sticks of ibiraba wood, which burned steadily once the
end fibers had been unraveled.
Weapons. — See Hunting (p. 100).
Calabashes. — Halved gourds served as dishes and bowls. The interior
was generally smeared with genipa and the exterior with a yellow varnish.
Small containers or mortars were made of the shell of the sapucaia fruits.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
From existing documents, we can only surmise the type of social
organization prevailing among the Tupinamba. Like many Guiana In-
dians, they lived in large communal houses, whose occupants were related
either by blood or by marriage and were probably the members of a
patrilineal extended family. A man's brother's daughter was regarded
as his daughter, but his sister's daughter was his potential wife. The
children of a woman of the tribe by a captive father were regarded as
members of the enemy group and were consequently eaten by their
mother's relatives. The children of a tribesman were always full-fledged
members of the community irrespective of the mother's status.
Marriage. — The preferred marriages were between cross-cousins and
between a girl and her mother's brother, or in case there were none, the
mother's nearest male relative. The maternal uncle carefully supervised
the conduct of his future bride if he did not wish to take advantage of his
marital claim, and had to be consulted if his niece wanted to marry another
man. If the husband were not the girl's mother's brother, he became his
father-in-law's servant. He had to assist him in all economic activities,
such as house building, opening clearings, hunting, fishing, and fuel gather-
ing. He also had to accompany him on the warpath, carry his burdens,
and supply him with food and shelter. To gain the favor of his in-laws,
the bridegroom would assume the responsibility of revenging the death
of any of his affinal relatives and ofifer a prisoner he might have taken to
one of his brothers-in-law, who would kill the captive, thereby increasing
his prestige by a change of his name, A hard fate it was indeed for
those who had few relatives and were, therefore, compelled to live with
their in-laws. "Marriage," says Thevet (1575), "costs the man a great
deal of work and pain." Suitors, according to Soares de Souza (1851,
p. 311), worked 2 or 3 years before they acquired their wives; and after
this they had to settle with their in-laws and remain in their service.
Marriage, in its initial phase at least, seems to have been strictly
matrilocal, but the general tendency for any man was to liberate himself
112 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
from his subordinate position by settling with his wife in his parents' long
house. Chiefs could do away with matrilocalism and take their wives
home; a man related to a powerful family could buy his liberty with
presents and favors bestowed on his in-laws; and any man might also
gain his freedom by marrying his daughter to his wife's brother.
A widow generally married her husband's older brother or one of his
close relatives who had avenged her husband's death, if it had occurred
in battle, or who had taken a prisoner to "renew" the deceased spouse's
grave and wear his ornaments, in case of a natural death. (See p. 120.)
The second husband was expected to be as valiant as the first.
Once redeemed from his bondage, a man could take other wives and
often did at the request of a wife eager to share her tasks with them. The
first wife always retained a preeminent position, however, and enjoyed the
right to hang her hammock next to that of her husband. Each wife of a
polygynous man "had her separate lodging in the huts, her own fire and
root plantation, and that one with whom he (the husband) cohabited for
the time being, gave him his food, and thus he went the round of them"
(Staden, 1928, p. 146).
A man could also have wives scattered in different villages. Polygynous
wives were given to surprisingly little jealousy and quarreling, though they
often included women of other villages who had been captured in war.
A young man unable to find a marriageable girl or lacking a mother or
sister to cook for him did not hesitate to take some aging woman as first
wife, whom he would discard when he could obtain a more suitable mate.
Warriors of renown and famous medicine men had no difficulty in
acquiring new wives, who were readily given to them by their fathers
or brothers. Some chiefs had as many as 30 wives. Polygyny was thus
a mark of prestige and a source of wealth. Matrimonial ties were easily
broken by either spouse, sometimes for reasons that appear to us trifling.
The divorced woman, if young, would remarry. An adulteress was not
severely punished unless her husband was a great chief ; but if a captive
or without a family to revenge her, she might be killed. The guilty partner
was unmolested, lest his kin start a feud.
Prestige. — ^A man with several daughters attained considerable au-
thority and prestige because he had under him both his sons-in-law and
his daughters' suitors. Men who had changed names often, having killed
several enemies in battle or sacrificed captives on the village plaza, acquired
great prestige and influence in the community.
Slaves. — Though, with few exceptions, all prisoners, male or female,
were eventually eaten, they were kept long enough in the community to be
considered a special class within Tupinamha society. Possession of a
prisoner was an envied privilege. One who enjoyed it did not hesitate to
make the greatest sacrifices to keep his charge happy and in good health.
A man would starve rather than deprive his captive of food, and usually
Vol. 3] THE TUPINAMBA— METRAUX 113
gave him a daughter or sister as a wife. Lacking a close female relative,
the captor would ask a friend to give him a woman for the purpose, a
request sure to be granted, for conjugal ties with a prisoner were regarded
as honorable. In certain cases the prisoner was married to the widow of
a warrior killed before his capture and was allotted the deceased's ham-
mock and ornaments. The relations between a prisoner and his new wife
were identical with those of any other married couple and were supposed
to last forever, the woman being just as attached to her temporary husband
as in normal wedlock. These prisoners' wives, it is said, had the respon-
sibility of preventing their husbands from running away, but the statement
is to be accepted with reserve. Some authors report cases of women who
grew so fond of their husbands that they escaped with them.
Female captives were often taken as secondary wives or concubines by
their masters, but sooner or later they were ritually sacrificed unless they
belonged to an influential man who had become fond of them. If their
masters did not care for them, they were allowed to have sexual relations
with whomever they wished. The skulls of female captives who died a
natural death were crushed.
Prisoners were kindly treated and regarded their masters, whose quar-
ters they shared, as relatives. The Tupinamba were heartbroken to see
Europeans mistreat the prisoners they had sold to them. They would come
from far away to visit them, and would hide and protect any of their
former slaves who escaped.
Prisoners had fields for their maintenance and were free to hunt or
fish. They were welcome at the feasts and drinking bouts. It seems,
however, that, like a son-in-law or a brother-in-law, they were obliged
to work for their masters. They were, moreover, reminded of their servile
condition by a few restrictions and humiliations. They could not make a
present or work for anybody without their masters' consent. They were
forbidden to enter a hut through the thatched wall, though other people
might do so. They must, under pain of death, avoid amorous relations
with a married woman. If they fell sick, they were immediately sacrificed.
Further, at any time they could be the target for the most violent insults
and abuses. A woman who refused to accept willingly the sacrifice of
children she had by a prisoner, was severly censured, and her family
shared her disrepute.
POLITICAL ORGANIZATION
Each long house had a headman who was under the village chief. Some
villages had two or even three or four chiefs, if we may rely on Claude
d' Abbeville's census of the Maranhao region. Some chiefs extended their
power over a whole district and commanded a great many villages. Rank
was determined by war prowess (capture and ceremonial execution of
prisoners), magic power, oratorical gifts, and wealth.
114 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.B. Bull. 143
Soares de Souza writes:
The chief must be a man of courage. He has to belong to a large family and to
be well liked by its members so that they are willing to help cultivate his plantations,
but even when he opens a clearing with the assistance of relatives, he is the first to
put his hand to the task. [Soares de Souza, 1851, p. 325.]
The authority of chiefs, undisputed in war time, was subordinated to
the sanction of a council in peace.
This council was composed of the elder men and famous warriors,
who met on the village plaza for any important decision. The chief spoke
first, and then each councilor in turn gave his opinion, while the others,
according to their rank, sat in their hammocks or squatted on the ground
smoking huge cigarettes.
Each morning the headman of a hut assigned everybody a task and
delivered a speech encouraging the people to go to work and follow the
good example of their ancestors.
Chieftainship was inherited by the son or the brother of the deceased
chief, if he had the required qualifications.
Social control and justice. — Social control over the individual's
behavior was very strong. Great stress was put on the smoothness of
manners and gentleness, any outburst of anger being looked on with
abhorrence. People shunned the company of temperamental persons.
If an Indian felt incapable of controlling his feelings, he warned those
present, who immediately tried to calm him down. When a serious
quarrel broke out in a village, the individuals involved went to the ex-
treme of burning their own houses, challenging their adversaries to do
likewise. Under the influence of anger, these Indians were prone to
commit suicide by eating soil.
Blood revenge was a sacred duty. When a homicide might involve
two allied groups in a feud, the relatives of the murderer often did not
hesitate to kill him, lest the peace be disturbed.
The cooperation of neighbors or relatives in any joint enterprise was
rewarded by a drinking party organized by the beneficiaries. A hunter
or a fishermen, upon returning home, shared his catch first with the
headman of the long house and then with the members of his household.
The Tupinamhas' generosity and willingness to share anything they had
are often stressed by the old sources. Anybody could, without asking
for permission, use utensils belonging to some housemate,
ETIQUETTE
Guests were greeted with tears. As soon as a visitor entered a hut
he was surrounded by the women of the house, who showed their sym-
pathy by friendly gestures and started to cry, intermingling their laments
with chants in which they alluded to the dead members of the community
and to other mournful subjects. The guest had to pretend that he was
Vol. 3] THE TUPINAMBA— METRAUX 115
shedding tears. When the crying had ceased, the male hosts, who had
affected indifference, turned toward the newcomer and welcomed him.
Any member of the community who had been absent, even for a short
time, was received with weeping when he returned. Chiefs were greeted
with tears even if they had only walked to their nearby fields.
The mournful manifestations by which a returning traveler was greeted
were actually the reenactment of a funeral rite with which the absent
person or the guest was associated.
LIFE cycle: birth, puberty, death
Birth. — When a woman felt the first pangs of childbirth, she squatted
on a fiat piece of wood that leaned against the wall, or directly on the
ground. Women neighbors surrounded her but gave little assistance. If
the delivery was difficult, the husband pressed on her stomach. In case
of a male infant, the father cut the umbilicus with his teeth or between
two stones and took him up from the ground in token of recognition.
The mother or some close female relative performed the operation on
female babies. The mother's brother took the baby girl in his arms,
thereby claiming her as his future wife. After the baby was washed,
its father or the midwife flattened its nose with the thumb, an operation
repeated later during infancy by the mother.
The father took to his hammock and lay in it for several days, receiv-
ing the visits of his friends, who expressed their sympathy for his plight.
The couvade lasted until the dry navel cord fell off. During this period
the father had to refrain from eating meat, fish, and salt. Even after
the confinement, he was not allowed to do any hard work lest he cause
some harm to the infant. For a baby boy, claws of ferocious animals,
a small bow and arrow, and a bundle of grass symbolizing his future
enemies were attached to his little hammock, which was suspended be-
tween two war clubs. A little girl was given capivara teeth to make
her teeth hard, a gourd, and cotton garters.
In the postnatal period, the father performed several magic rites to
make the child successful during his life. Thus, he would have a male
baby's sling caught in a trap as if it were some game. He would shoot
at the sling with the miniature bow and arrows or throw a fishing net
over it. When the navel cord was dry, he sliced it into small pieces and
tied each to one of the main house posts so th^t the child would become
the progenitor of a numerous family. If the father were absent or dead,
the same rites were performed by the mother's brother or some close
maternal relative. Food taboos were imposed on the mother during the
same period.
Naming. — The choice of a name, a serious matter, was discussed at a
special meeting. Generally, the child received the name of an ancestor.
116 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
a custom that is probably connected with the Tupinamba belief that chil-
dren were reincarnated ancestors.
Childhood. — Boys were gradually weaned at the age of 4 or 5 years
(some authors say 6 to 7) and girls a year later. From early infancy
children were given solid food in the form of maize, which the mother
masticated into a pap and passed from her mouth into the baby's. Children,
male and female, remained in close contact with their mothers until the
age of 8. Little boys, meanwhile, were encouraged to practice archery
and to train themselves for war and hunting. Early voyagers report
unanimously that children, though never scolded, were well disciplined.
Little is known about early education. To stop their babies from crying,
mothers put cotton, feathers, or a piece of wood on their heads. To ac-
celerate a child's growth, they rubbed it with their hands. Every morning
one of the headmen went around the village scratching the legs of the
children to make them obedient. Naughty children were threatened with
the man with the scratcher.
At the age of 4 or 5, young boys had their lower lips pierced for a
labret. The operation was a festive occasion attended by the members of
the community and inhabitants of other friendly villages. The child was
expected not to flinch during the operation, thus showing his fortitude.
Thereafter, boys tied up their prepuce with a cotton thread.
Girls* puberty. — ^A girl underwent a series of severe ordeals at her
first menstruation. With her head carefully shaven, she had to stand on
a whetstone while geometric designs were cut on her back with a sharp
rodent tooth. Ashes of a wild gourd rubbed in the wounds left indelible
tattoo marks. This scarification had to be endured without crying. Then
the girl lay in her hammock, concealed from sight, and observed a strict
fast for 3 days. She must not touch the ground with her feet nor leave
the hammock until her second menstruation. Meanwhile, if she had to
go outside the hut, she was carried on her mother's shoulders. At her
second menstruation, she received additional tattoo marks on the breasts,
stomach, and buttocks. Henceforward, she might work but was not
permitted to leave the house or to speak. Only after the third period was
she free to go to the fields and resume her normal occupations.
Adulthood. — After puberty, girls could indulge freely in sexual prac-
tices until marriage. Any girl who lost her virginity had to break a
string she wore around her waist and arms after her first menstruation.
Premarital chastity was expected of a girl betrothed to a chief and brought
up in his house from childhood. Chiefs' infant brides, however, might
stay at home until coming of age. No young man could marry or even
have sexual relations, according to Cardim (1939), before he had killed
one or two prisoners, for the sons of a man who had not shed the blood
of his enemies were thought to be cowardly and lazy. This restriction or
a young man's sexual life could be obviated, perhaps long before he had
Vol. 3] THE TUPINAMBA— METRAUX 117
been to war, if his father or uncle gave him a prisoner to sacrifice. Men
married at about the age of 25.
After 40 a man was an "elder" and did no hard work. He spoke in
council. Very old men were respected and treated courteously.
Death. — A sick person who seemed doomed to death was ignored and
abandoned. But at the moment of his last breath his relatives surrounded
him and displayed the most spectacular forms of grief. They threw them-
selves on his body or on the ground and burst into tears. Ritual laments
and shedding of tears were restricted to women, especially old women, and
occasionally old men. The head of the extended family or the women of
the long house praised the deceased by stressing his courage at war and his
hunting or fishing skill. These funeral orations were interrupted by sighs
and cries.
In general, the Tupinamba were in such haste to bury their dead that
often the dying man was still alive when placed in the earth (fig. 11, top).
The grave was dug by the deceased's nearest male relatives. The corpse
was wrapped in a hammock or tied by cords in a foetal position and
squeezed into a big beer jar that was covered with a clay bowl. Some
food was placed in the grave and a fire was built in its vicinity to keep bad
spirits away. The head of a family was buried in the long house under
the quarters he had occupied during life, but there were many exceptions
to this rule, according to the age and preferences of the dead man. If
the corpse were buried in the open, a small hut was erected upon the
grave. Urn burial, though common, was not always practiced. When
buried directly in the earth, the body was protected against direct contact
with the soil by lining the grave walls with sticks.
Female mourners cut their hair, whereas men let theirs grow on
their shaven foreheads. Both sexes painted their bodies black with
genipa. Mourning women wailed for many days after a burial and
went at times to the grave to ask the whereabouts of the departed
soul. Other women of the community who visited them assisted in
their ritual laments. The mourning period lasted 1 to 6 months and
was strictly observed by the parents, siblings, children, and wife of
the deceased. No widow could remarry before her hair had reached
the level of her eyes. Before resuming normal life, each mourner enter-
tained his family and friends at a drinking bout with much singing and
dancing, at which time widows and widowers cut their hair and painted
themselves black.
After death the souls of gallant warriors killed in battle or eaten by
their enemies went to a beautiful land in the west where they enjoyed
the company of the mythical "grandfather" and of their dead ancestors.
They lived there happily and made merry forever. Access to this paradise
was forbidden to cowards and to women, except the wives of renowned
warriors.
118
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
Figure n.—Tupinamba burial and cultivation. Top: Burial ceremonies within a pali-
saded village. Bottom: Planting and harvesting of manioc. (After Staden, 1557.)
Vol. 3] THE TUPINAMBA— METRAUX 119
WAR AND CANNIBALISM
Religious and social values of high importance clustered around war
and the closely connected practice of cannibalism. Prestige and political
power were derived mainly from the ritual slaughtering of prisoners,
which was so far reaching in its influence that it even affected sexual
life. The Tupinambafs excessive interest in ritual cannibalism contrib-
uted toward keeping the different tribes and even local communities in a
constant state of warfare and was one of the chief causes of their ready
subjection by Europeans. Their mutual hatred of one another, born
of a desire to avenge the insult of cannibalism, was so great that the
Tupinamba groups always willingly marched with the White invaders
against their local rivals. Their bellicose disposition and craving for
human flesh loom large in many aspects of their culture, such as educa-
tion, oratory, poetry, and religion. The rites and festivities that marked
the execution of a prisoner and the consumption of his body were joyful
events which provided these Indians with the opportunity for merry-
making, esthetic displays, and other emotional outlets.
The Tupinamba went to war only with the certainty of victory, which
they derived from the interpretation of dreams and from ritualistic
performances such as dancing and reciting charms. When marching
toward the enemy, they paid special attention to any omen and to dreams.
The slightest bad omen was sufficient to stop the expedition: once a
party of warriors that had almost taken a village retreated because of a
few words uttered by a parrot.
Besides arrows and bows, Tupinamba weapons included a hardwood
club with a shape unique in South America. It consisted of two parts :
a long, rounded handle and a flattened, round, or oval blade with sharp
edges. The only defensive weapon was a shield of tapir hide. Warriors
donned their best feather ornaments and painted their bodies. Men of
importance were followed by their wives, who carried hammocks and
food for them. The advancing army was accompanied by musical in-
struments. Whenever possible, they used canoes to avoid long marches.
The chief always headed the column, which was disposed in one line.
Scouts reconnoitered the country. At night the warriors camped near
a river and built small huts in a row along a path.
The proper time to assault the enemy village was chosen cautiously.
As a rule, they stormed it at night or at dawn, when least expected. When
prevented by a stockade from entering a village immediately, they built
another palisade of thorny bushes around the village and started a siege.
One tactic was to set fire to the enemy houses with incendiary arrows.
Sometimes they slowly moved their fence close to the opposite wall so
that they could fight at close range.
The Tupinamba fought with courage and determination but without
much order as they did not obey any command during the battle. They
120 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
opened the attack by shooting arrows (fig. 12, left), hopping about with
great agiHty from one spot to another to prevent the enemy from aiming
or shooting at any definite individual. Amid ferocious howls, they
rushed against their opponents to strike them with their clubs, trying to
take prisoners, one of the main purposes of the war. Because it was
difficult to seize an enemy without the assistance of several persons, it
was an established rule that the prisoner belonged to the first man to
touch him. When a man was disarmed, the victor touched him on the
shoulder and said, "You are my prisoner." Thereafter, the man was
his slave. Those who remained in possession of the battlefield would
roast the corpses and bring back the heads and the sexual organs of the
dead.
The long set of cannibalistic rites and practices began immediately
after the capture of a prisoner. On the way home, the victorious party
exhibited their captives in friendly villages, where they were subjected
to "gross insults and vituperation." The latter retaliated by expressing
their contempt for their victors and their pride at being eaten as befitted
the brave.
Before entering their masters' village, the prisoners were dressed as
Tupinamba, with foreheads shaven, feathers glued to their bodies, and a
decoration of feather ornaments. They were taken to the graves of the
recently deceased of the community and compelled to "renew," that is,
clean them. Later they received the hammocks, ornaments, and weapons
of the dead, which had to be used before they could be reappropriated
by the heirs. The reason for this custom was that touching the belong-
ings of a dead relative was fraught with danger, unless they were first
defiled by a captive.
When the prisoners were taken into the village, women flocked around
them, snatched them from the hands of the men, and accompanied them,
celebrating their capture with songs, dances (fig. 12, right), and refer-
ences to the day of their execution. They forced the prisoners to dance
in front of the hut where the sacred rattles were kept.
After this hostile reception, the prisoners' condition changed for the
better. Their victors often gave them to a son or some other relative,
who had the privilege of slaughtering them and acquiring new names —
one of the greatest distinctions which a Tupinamba coveted. The pris-
oners were also traded for feathers or other ornaments. In many cases,
the only outward sign of the prisoner's status was a cotton rope tied
around his neck, which, according to some sources, was a symbolical neck-
lace strung with as many beads as he had months to live until his execution.
The captives were in no way hampered in their movements; they knew
perfectly well that there was no place to which they could escape, for
their own groups, far from welcoming them, would even have killed
any member who attempted to return. On the other hand, to be killed
Vol. 3]
THE TUPINAMBA— MBTRAUX
121
122 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
ceremonially and then eaten was the fate for which any brave longed
once he had lost his liberty. Nothing would have reminded a prisoner of
his impending death if, on certain occasions, he had not been exhibited
in public and again exposed to jeers and provocations. At drinking bouts,
portions of his body were allotted beforehand to the carousers, each of
whom — in the victim's presence — learned the part he was to receive at
the ceremonial execution.
The village council chose the date of execution and sent invitations to
friendly communities. Preparations for the sacrifice started a long time
in advance. Certain accessories, like the plaited rope with which the
victim was fastened, required a long time to make. Great quantities of
beer also had to be brewed for the occasion.
The prisoner feigned indifference toward these signs of his threatening
fate. In certain villages he was tied up, but then he indulged freely in
all sorts of mischief to revenge his death. The rites observed in these
cases started after the arrival of the guests and lasted 3 to 5 days.
On the first day the cord was bleached and artfully knotted, the prisoner
was painted black, green eggshells were pasted on his face, and red
feathers were glued on his body. The executioners also decorated their
own persons with feathers and paint. Old women spent the first night
in the hut of the captive singing songs depicting his fate. On the second
day they made a bonfire in the middle of the plaza, and men and women
danced around the flames while the prisoner pelted them with anything
he could reach. The only ceremony of the third day was a dance accom-
panied by trumpets. The day before the execution the prisoner was given
a chance to escape but was immediately pursued. The person who over-
took and overpowered him in a wrestling combat adopted a new name,
as did the ceremonial executioner. The ritual rope was passed round the
prisoner's neck, the end being held by a woman. The prisoner was then
given fruits or other missiles to throw at passers-by. Festivities began
that night. The prisoner was often requested to dance. Apparently he
did so without reluctance and took part in the general rejoicing as if he
were merely a guest. He even regarded his position as enviable, for
"it was an honor to die as a great warrior during dancing and drinking."
The prisoner spent the remainder of his last night in a special hut under
the surveillance of women, singing a song in which he foretold the ruin of
his enemies and proclaimed his pride at dying as a warrior. His only
food was a nut that prevented his bleeding too much. The same night the
club to be used for the sacrifice received special treatment. It was deco-
rated, like the prisoner himself, with green eggshells glued on the wood,
the handle was trimmed with tassels and feathers (figs. 7, right; 9, right)
and finally, it was suspended from the roof of a hut, women dancing and
singing around it during the entire night (fig. 13, left).
Vol. 3]
THE TUPINAMBA— IVIETRAUX
123
653333—47—11
TZ^ SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS IB.A.E. Bull, i^
The following morning the prisoner was dragged to the plaza by some
old women amid cries, songs, and music. The rope was taken from his
neck, passed round his waist, and held at both ends by two or more men
(fig. 13, right). Again he was allowed to give vent to his feelings by
throwing fruits or potsherds at his enemies. He was surrounded by
women who vied in their insults. Old v/omen, painted black and red, with
necklaces of human teeth, darted out of their huts carrying newly painted
vases to receive the victim's blood and entrails. A fire was lit and the
ceremonial club was shown to the captive. Every man present handled
the club for a while, thus acquiring the power to catch a prisoner in the
future. Then the executioner appeared in full array, painted and covered
with a long feather cloak. He was followed by relatives who sang and
beat drums. Their bodies, like that of the executioner, were smeared with
white ashes. The club was handed to the executioner by a famous old
warrior, who performed a few ritual gestures with it. Then the execu-
tioner and his victim harangued each other. The executioner derided the
prisoner for his imminent death, while the latter foretold the vengeance
that his relatives would take and boasted of his past deeds. The captive
showed despondency only if his executioner, instead of being an experi-
enced warrior, was merely a young man who had never been on the
battlefield. The execution itself was a cruel game. Enough liberty was
allowed the prisoner to dodge the blows, and sometimes a club was put
in his hands so that he could parry them without being able to strike.
When at last he fell down, his skull shattered, everybody shouted and
v/histled. The position of the body was interpreted as an omen for the
executioner. The prisoner's wife shed a few tears over his body and then
joined in the cannibalistic banquet.
Old women rushed to drink the warm blood, and children were invited
to dip their hands in it. Mothers would smear their nipples with blood so
that even babies could have a taste of it. The body, cut into quarters, was
roasted on a barbecue (fig. 14), and the old women, who were the most
eager for human flesh, licked the grease running along the sticks. Some
portions, reputed to be delicacies or sacred, such as the fingers or the
grease around the liver or heart, were allotted to distinguished guests.
As soon as the executioner had killed the victim, he had to run quickly
to his hut, which he entered passing between the string and the stave
of a stretched bow. Indoors he continued running to and fro as if
escaping from his victim's ghost. Meanwhile his sisters and cousins
went through the village proclaiming his new name. On this occasion,
the male and female relatives of his generation also had to take new names.
The members of the community then rushed into the killer's hut and
looted all his goods, while the killer himself stood on wooden pestles,
where the eye of his victim was shown to him and rubbed against his
wrist. The lips of the dead man were sometimes given to him to wear
Vol. 3]
THE TUPINAMBA— METRAUX
125
Figure 14. — Tupinamba cannibalism. (After Staden, 1557.)
126 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
as a bracelet. However, his flesh was strictly taboo to the killer. After
this the executioner had to recline in a hammock until the hair on his
shaved forehead had grown again. During seclusion, he entertained him-
self by shooting miniature arrows at a wax figure. For 3 days he might
not walk but was carried whenever he needed to leave the hut. He also
avoided several foods, especially condiments. His return to normal life
was celebrated by a big drinking bout, at which the killer tattooed himself
by slashing his body in different patterns with an agouti tooth — the more
tattooing marks a man could exhibit the higher was his prestige. Even
after the feast he was subject to a few more restrictions before he was
again a full-fledged member of the community.
The same rites were practiced if, instead of a man, a jaguar had been
killed. Later, when the Tupinamba could no longer sacrifice their war
prisoners, they would open the graves of their enemies and break the
skulls with the same ceremonies. The heads of dead enemies were
pinned to the ends of the stockade posts.
ESTHETIC AND RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Dances. — Ceremonial dances are described as a monotonous but ener-
getic stamping on the ground by a group of men standing in a circle, with
their bodies bent slightly downward and their hands hanging by their
sides or laid on their buttocks. The dancers remained on the same spot,
except for occasional steps forward and backward and for rotation. Some-
times they shook their heads and made rhythmical gestures with their
arms. Dancers were accompanied by songs, the time being marked by
shaking rattles or jingling dry fruits that the dancers wore tied round their
legs. The rhythm was also given by beating drums or by pounding the
ground with a wooden tube. As a rule, men danced separately from
women, whose movements are said to have been more violent and exag-
gerated than those of the other sex. Profane dances were distinguished
by a greater freedom of motion and by their orgiastic character. Men and
women lost control of themselves, and their dances consisted of wild
jumping and running to and fro.
Songs. — Tupinamba songs have received much praise. Singers started
softly and then gradually sang louder and louder. Cardim says.
They keep among themselves differences of voices in their consort : and ordinarily
the women sing the treble, the counter and tenor. [Cardim, 1939, p. 155.]
The songs were started by a choirmaster who sang a couplet ; the refrain
was repeated by the whole group. The words of these songs refer to
mythical events, especially to wars and the heroic deeds of the ancestors.
The numerous and graceful allusions to nature were similes. Good com-
posers enjoyed such prestige that if taken prisoner they were released even
by their bitterest enemies.
Vol. 3] THE TUPINAMBA— METRAUX 127
Musical instruments. — When carousing or expressing strong feelings
collectively, the Tupinamba blew trumpets or played flutes. The trumpets
were conch shells with a perforated hole, or a wooden or bamboo tube, on
one end of which a calabash served to amplify the sound. Flutes were
made of bamboo or of the long bones of slain enemies. Drums, made of a
piece of wood hollowed by fire, were small. Rattles have been mentioned
above. The time of the dances was beaten with a stamping tube, a thick
bamboo stick 4 to 5 feet (1.2 to 1.5 m.) long that was pounded on the
ground. On their feet the dancers wore jingles made of fruit shells of
Thevetia ahouai (Metraux, 1928 a, pp. 214-217).
Narcotics. — Smoking was one of the favorite pastimes in daily life as
well as on ceremonial occasions. Tobacco leaves were dried in a hut, then
wrapped in a leaf to form a huge cylindrical or conical cigarette. Long
tubular bamboo pipes were used exclusively by shamans in magical per-
formances. Stone pipes, found in several points of the Brazilian coast,
perhaps belong to another culture anterior to that of the Tupi.
Alcoholic beverages. — All social events were occasions for drinking
bouts, at which great quantities of beer were consumed. The preparation
of large amounts of fermented beverages for these feasts was a heavy task
for the women, and was one reason for the polygyny of chiefs. Liquors
were made from different plants : sweet manioc, maize, sweet potatoes,
mangabeira {Hancornia speciosa), cashew, Jaboticaba {Myrciaria cauli-
flora) , pineapples, bananas, and also beiju wafers and honey. Manioc beer,
the favorite drink, was prepared as follows : The roots, cut into thin slices,
were first boiled, then squeezed and partly chewed by young girls. The
mass, impregnated with saliva, was mixed with water and heated again over
the fire. The liquid was afterward poured into huge jars, half buried in the
ground, covered with leaves, and left 2 or 3 days to ferment. A fire was
built around the jars to warm the beverage before serving it. Each ex-
tended family manufactured its own liquor. When a bout was organized,
drinkers went successively to each hut, exhausting the available supply.
The women served the liquors in huge calabashes. Old men and guests
of honor were served first by the host's closest female relatives. Drinking
was always the occasion for riotous merrymaking. Men and women,
painted and covered with their more showy ornaments, danced, shouted,
whistled, played musical instruments, talked excessively, and brawled.
These orgies lasted for 3 or 4 days, during which nobody ate or slept much.
RELIGION
Supernatural beings. — The supernatural powers, by whom the Tupi-
namba felt themselves surrounded, may be classified into two groups : ( 1 )
individualized spirits, generally malevolent, which we may call demons or
genii; (2) ghosts. The latter, by far the more numerous, differed from
the former in having a much more impersonal nature.
128 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
The demon of Thunder, Tupa, a secondary character in the early myth-
ology, had as his main function to go "from east to west causing thunder,
lightning, and rain." After White contact, this simple demon was pro-
moted to the rank of the Christian God and as such still survives among the
Tupi-spe3.king Mestizos.
The bush was peopled by a number of greatly feared demons, who are
still active in the folklore of modern Brazil. The most famous of these
were Yurupari, Aiiaii, and Kuru-pira. Yurupari and Afiafi were syn-
onyms, employed respectively by the northern and southern Tupinamba.
Missionaries and travelers, however, often confused them with ordinary
ghosts ; they either refer to them rightly as single demons or use these
names collectively to designate the whole host of spirits. Just as Tupa
was identified with God, Yurupari was equated to the Devil. The Caboclos
of Brazil describe him as a goblin, an ogre that haunts the forests and is
generally malicious. The same confusion arose about Aiiafi, who at one
time is called a bush spirit and at another, some ghost. Kuru-pira, scarcely
mentioned by the early sources, is the hero of countless tales among the
present-day Tupi. He is depicted as a goblin with upturned feet, figures
as the protector of game, and is rather ill-disposed toward mankind. Other
spirits, such as Makashera, Uaiupia, Taguaigba, Igpupiara, and Mbae-tate
(will-o'-the-wisp) , are scarcely alluded to in the literature.
The world as conceived by the Tupinamba was the abode of innumerable
ghosts who could be met everywhere, but especially in the woods, in all
dark places, and in the neighborhood of graves. These supernatural
beings were often harmful : they caused disease, droughts, and defeat. The
Tupinamba often complained of being attacked and tormented by them.
Some ghosts took the form of awe-inspiring animals, such as black birds,
bats, and salamanders. Others, more tenuous, changed colors. These
spirits were particularly obnoxious in the dark but could be driven away
by the fire kept burning all night in Tupinamba quarters. No Indian
would travel after sunset without a torch or a firebrand lest he be harmed
by the evil spirits. So great was their fear of these that they even asked
White people to settle in their village in order to keep the spirits in check.
Ceremonialism. — Many details point to cults centering around the
supernatural beings described above, who were symbolized by small posts
sometimes provided with a cross bar from which painted images were
suspended. Small offerings, such as feathers, flowers, or perhaps food,
were deposited near them. Spirits were also represented by calabashes
painted with human features. Such figures often appeared in the cere-
monies of shamans, who burned tobacco leaves in them and inhaled the
smoke to induce trances. Maize kernels were put in the mouths of these
sacred effigies, which had movable jaws so as to imitate mastication. The
grains thus consecrated were sown in the fields, and were expected to
produce a good crop. The rattles (maracas), which were highly sacred
Vol. 3] THE TUPINAMBA— METRAUX 129
objects profusely decorated with paintings and feather tufts, are difficult
to differentiate from these idols. There is a single statement that seems to
indicate that the Tupinamba also worshiped wax images kept in special
huts.
Rattles were the accessories of all ceremonial activities (fig. 15), but
seem to have been used only if previously consecrated by a shaman, who
attracted a helpful spirit into them. Every year the villages were visited
by shamans (called pay) endowed with power to cause all the rattling
maracas chosen by them to speak and grow so powerful that they could
grant whatever was required of them. All rattles were presented to the
shamans, who conferred upon them the "power of speech" by fumigating
them and uttering charms. Then the shamans exhorted the owners of the
rattles to go to war and take prisoners to be devoured, for the "spirits in
the rattles craved the flesh of captives."
These rattles, after the ceremony, became sacred objects taboo to women.
They were placed in a sort of temple and received offerings of food when
asked to grant a favor. The spirits who had taken their abode in the rattles
advised their owners and revealed future events to them. After a vic-
torious expedition, they were thanked for their assistance.
Shamanism. — The intermediaries between the community and the
supernatural world were the shamans. All the chiefs or old men were
more or less conversant with magic, but only those who had given some
evidence of unusual power were regarded as real medicine men. Their
reputation depended mainly on the accuracy of their prophecies and the
success of their cures. Those who had achieved fame were known as
karai or pay-wasu, "great medicine men." When a man was about to
obtain great magical power, he would shun people, go into seclusion, fast,
and then return to announce that he had come in close touch with the
spirits. The shamans were rain makers, diviners, and, above all, healers.
They had at their service a familiar spirit, sometimes in animal shape,
who would follow them and even perform menial tasks for them. The
medicine men relied on these spirits when requested to accomplish some
difficult task, for instance, to gather rain clouds. They also consulted
them as to the issue of some important enterprise or about distant events.
The shaman sought interviews with the spirits after 9 days of continence,
shutting himself up in a secluded cabin and drinking beer prepared by
young virgins. Questions were asked the spirits by the community, but the
"whistled" answers were given to the shamans. Some medicine men
traveled to the land of the spirits, where they had long talks with the dead.
Shamans as a rule were men, but a few women could prophesy after
they had put themselves into a trance, and some old women, said to be
possessed by spirits, practiced medicine.
A shaman's breath was loaded with magic power that was greatly rein-
forced with tobacco smoke. Often the shaman was asked to transfer part
130
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS
[B.A.E. Bull. 143
of his "virtue" to the body of some cHent or disciple. Persons favored
in that way started to tremble. General confessions of transgressions were
imposed by shamans on women in circumstances that are not explained.
Ritual lustrations also were performed by medicine men.
Figure 15. — Tupinamba shamans wearing feather cloaks and carrying rattles.
(After Metraux, 1928 a.)
The shamans, once recognized as such, enjoyed considerable prestige,
being addressed with respect even by chiefs. Wherever they traveled they
were welcomed with fasts and rejoicing. They inspired such fear that
nobody dared gainsay them or refuse their requests. Some shamans rose
to political power, exercising unchallenged authority in their communities
or even in large districts.
Medicine. — To cure sick people, shamans resorted to the classic methods
of sucking and blowing tobacco smoke over the body of the patient. They
extracted objects considered the cause of the ailment. Female shamans
removed the disease by sucking a thread which had been put in contact
with the patient's body. Medicinal virtues were attributed to genipa paint,
which was used freely for many diseases. Headaches and fevers were
treated by scarification. Wounded people were stretched on a barbecue,
under which a slow fire was lighted, and roasted until their wounds dried.
A great many medicinal herbs are enumerated in early descriptions of
Vol. 3 J THE TUPINAMBA— METRAUX 131
the Brazilian coast, but it is stated only rarely whether the plants actually
were used by the Indians for medical purposes, or whether they had been
adopted by early European colonists, who were extremely eager to discover
miraculous virtues in the Brazilian flora.
Revivalism. — In the years that followed Portuguese colonization of
Brazil, the Tupinamba were stirred by religious crises that have some
analogy with the revivalistic or messianic movements occurring in other
parts of the world, especially among some North American tribes.
Prophets or messiahs arose among them promising a golden age in which
digging sticks would till the soil by themselves and arrows would kill the
game without intervention of hunters. The Indians were assured of im-
mortality and eternal youth. The followers of the messiahs gave up their
usual activities, dedicated themselves to constant dancing, and even started
mass migrations to reach the mythical land of the culture hero. Several
of the late Tupinamba migrations were caused by the urge to enter the
promised land as soon as possible. The leaders of these religious move-
ments were in many cases deified. Certain traits of their personality
suggest that they represent a new type of wonder-worker, who had been
influenced both by the early traditions of their tribes and by Christian ideas
preached to the Indians by the Catholic missionaries. Similar crises oc-
curred in modern times among the southern Tupi of Paraguay and Brazil.
A comparison between the ancient and the modern messianic outbursts
shows remarkable similarities.
These beliefs were closely associated with the cosmology. The Tupi-
namba established a correlation between the eclipses and the end of the
world, which marked the beginning of a new era of peace and happiness.
Whenever an eclipse occurred, the men chanted a hymn hailing the mythi-
cal "grandfather," and the women and children moaned, throwing them-
selves to the ground in the utmost despair.
MYTHOLOGY
Important fragments of Tupinamba mythology have come down to us
through the French friar, Andre Thevet (who visited Brazil in 1555).
The main characters are represented by a set of culture heroes listed under
the names of Monan, Maira-monan, Maira-pochy, Mairata, and Sume, all
of which may well be synonyms for a single figure : the Tamoi or Mythical
Grandfather. The culture hero, Monan, though an exalted creator, does
not rank strictly as a god because he was not worshiped. Even his creative
activities are not all-embracing ; he made "the sky, the earth, the birds, and
the animals ; but neither the sea nor the clouds" nor, apparently, mankind.
Closely associated with him was Maira-monan, who is probably the same
Monan with the epithet Maira (Europeans were also called Maira).
Thevet calls him the "Transformer" because he was fond of changing
132 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
things according to his fancies. Maira-monan, described as a great medi-
cine man living in seclusion and fasting, was a benefactor of mankind,
on whom he bestowed agriculture. Tradition has it that he changed him-
self into a child who, when beaten, dropped fruits and tubers. According
to another version, he initiated a young girl into the practice of agriculture.
As a lawgiver he introduced social organization and imposed severe taboos,
including the prohibition of eating slow-moving animals. For unknown
reasons, ungrateful people plotted his death and, after several unsuc-
cessful attempts, burned him on a pyre. The bursting of his head origi-
nated Thunder, and the fire of his pyre, Lightning. There is no doubt that
Maira-monan and Sume, who is often mentioned as the originator of
agriculture, are the same culture hero. Owing to a vague similarity of
name, Sume was regarded by early missionaries as the fabulous apostle
Saint Thomas (S. Tome), the supposed bringer of Christianity to the
Indians long before the discovery of America. Petroglyphs or natural
fissures in rocks suggesting footprints were attributed to Saint Thomas
and were presented as evidence of his extensive travels.
The twin cycle, so common in South American mythology, is closely
connected with the personality of the culture hero, Maira. The main
episodes of the myth are as follows: Maira deserts his wife, who is
pregnant. She sets out in quest of her lost husband and is guided in her
journey by the unborn child. Having been refused one of his requests, the
child grows angry and remains silent. The mother is lost and arrives at
the house of Sarigue (Opossum, subsequently a man), who sleeps with
her and makes her pregnant with a second child. Continuing her search
for her husband she is misled to the village of Jaguar (also a man), who
kills her and throws the twins on a heap of rubbish. They are saved by
a woman, who brings them up. They demonstrate their supernatural
origin by growing very rapidly and feeding their foster mother abundant
game. Remembering, or learning, that Jaguar and his people killed their
mother, they take revenge by luring them to the sea and changing them
into actual beasts of prey. Then they start again in search of their father.
Finally, they find him, but he does not want to acknowledge them as his
children before a trial of their origin. He orders them to accomplish
difficult tasks. They shoot arrows into the sky and each arrow hits the
butt of the other, thus forming a long chain. They pass between two
constantly clashing and recoiling rocks. The twin begotten by Opossum
is crushed to pieces, but his brother undergoes the ordeal successfully
and brings him back to life. The same fate befalls Opossum's son when
he tries to steal the bait of the demon Afiari, but again Maira's son
revives him. After they have gone through these several ordeals, both are
recognized by Maira as his children.
There are two versions of the destruction of the world. The first cata-
clysm which befell the earth was a big fire set by Monan, which he himself
Vol. 3] THE TUPINAMBA— METRAUX 133
put out by flooding the universe. The flood explains the origin of the rivers
and of the sea, which is still salty because of the ashes.
Arikut and Tamendonar were brothers. The latter, a peaceful man, was
gravely insulted by Arikut, who threw at him the arm of a victim he was
devouring. Tamendonar caused a spring to flow so abundantly that the
water covered the surface of the earth. Both brothers escaped and repopu-
lated the universe.
In the cosmogony collected by Thevet, a tale has been incorporated
which was and is still very popular among South American Indians
(Chiriguano, Mataco, Toba, Uro-Chipaya, Indians of Huarochiri).
Maira-pochy (the bad Maira), a powerful medicine man or more probably
the culture hero himself, appears in the village disguised as an indigent and
dirty man. He makes the daughter of the village chief pregnant by giving
her a fish to eat. Later, when all the most handsome men of the region
vie with one another to be recognized as the father of the child, the baby
hands Maira-pochy a bow and arrows, thus acknowledging him as his
father. Maira-pochy shows his supernatural power by raising miraculous
crops. He transforms his relatives-in-law into many diflferent animals.
LORE AND LEARNING
The division of time among the northern Tupinamba was based on the
appearance and disappearance of the Pleiades above the horizon. The
ripening of cashews was also used for reckoning time. Dates of
future events were calculated with knots or beads on a cord.
A complete list of the Tupinamba constellations has been recorded by
Claude d'Abbeville. Most of them were named after animals. Eclipses
were explained as attempts of a celestial jaguar (a red star) to devour
the moon.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abbeville, 1614; Acuna, 1891; Anchieta, 1846, 1876-77; Ayrosa, 1943; Cardim,
1939; Denis, 1851; Enformagao do Brazil, 1844; Fritz, 1922; Hoehne, 1937; Lery,
1880 ; Magalhaes de Gandavo, 1922 ; Metraux, 1927, 1928 a, 1928 b ; Nieuhoff, 1682 ;
Pinto, 1935-38; Rocha Pombo, 1905; Soares de Souza, 1851; Staden, 1928 (1557);
Studart Filho, 1931 ; Thevet, 1575, 1878 (see also Metraux, 1928 b) ; Vaas de Cam-
inha, 1812-13; Vasconcellos, 1865; Yves d'Evreux, 1864. For further Tupinamba
references, see Metraux, 1927, 1928 a.
THE GUAJA
By Curt Nimuendaju
HISTORY
The Giiajd are called Wazaisara (wazai, an ornament of small tufts of
feathers stuck with wax in the hair, plus zara, "owner") by the Guaja-
jara and Tembe, and Aiaye by the Amanaye. Guajd is the Neo-Brazilian
form of gwaza.
The tribe is rarely mentioned in literature. In 1774, Ribeiro de Sampaio
(1825, p. 8) mentions the Uaya among the tribes of the lower Tocantins.
A list of the tribes existing in 1861 in the region along the road from
Imperatriz to Belem mentions the Ayaya as "wild; very few of them
are tame, but are timorous and therefore are pursued and killed by the
others" (Marques, C. A., 1864). According to the report of F. C. de
Araujo Brusque (1862, p. 12), the Uaiara (Guajard) at times appeared on
the upper Gurupi River but did not have a fixed residence.
The author obtained the following information among the Tenihe of
the Gurupi in 1913-14 and among the Guajajara in 1929:
The Guajd wandered without fixed living places through the jungles
between the Capim and upper Gurupi Rivers and between the latter and
the Pindare River, northward to about lat. 3° 40' S. (map 1, No. 1 ; see
Volume 1, map 7). In 1910 or 1911 a small group of them committed small
thefts in the fields at the mouth of the Gurupi Mirim River. The Tembe
tracked them to the headwaters of the Gurupi Mirim. Although armed
with powerful bows and arrows, the Guajd there surrendered meekly to
their pursuers, who took them to the village. Here the captives soon
died of intestinal ills attributed to the Tembe's cooked and seasoned food.
The language of the two tribes was so similar that they understood each
other with ease. In 1943, the botanist Ricardo Froes met a group of
them on the upper Caru, a left tributary of the Pindare River.
CULTURE
The Guajd did not have any agriculture whatever, but at times stole
from the plantations of the Tembe, Guajajara, and Urubu. When caught,
they were killed or at least beaten and imprisoned.
135
136 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
The Guaja built only temporary shelters, or merely camped under
trees, sleeping on leaf beds on the ground.
Some Guaja bows and arrows were procured in 1913 by a punitive
expedition against the then hostile Urubu Indians, who had massacred a
Guaja camp. The weapons were carelessly made but were very large,
the bamboo arrowheads being perhaps the largest known.
In 1913, the Guaja still used stone axes.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Brusque, 1862; Marques, C. A., 1864; Ribeiro de Sampaio, 1825.
II
THE TENETEHARA^
By Charles Wagley and Eduardo Galvao
INTRODUCTION
The Tripi-Guarani-speaking people of northeastern Brazil, commonly
called Guajajara and Tembe, are generally mentioned in the literature
as two independent tribes but are really a single group calling them-
selves Tenetehara. By this name they distinguish themselves from the
Urubu (also Tupi-Guarani) , the Timhira (Ge), and the Neo-Brazilians
of the same region.
The Guajajara-Tenetehara (map 1, No. 1 ; see Volume 1, map 7)
inhabit the region drained by the Mearim, Grajau, and Pindare Rivers in
the state of Maranhao (lat. 3°-5° S., long. 4°-6° W.) ; the Temhc-
Tenetehara (map 1, No. 1; see Volume 1, map 7) live along the Gurupi,
Guama, and Capim Rivers in the State of Para (lat. 2°-3° S., long. 7°-
9° W.). The Guajajara-Tenetehara now number more than 2,000, but
the Tembe-Tenetehara are estimated at only 350 to 400. For convenience,
we shall refer to these people by the name they give themselves, Tenete-
hara, rather than by the tribal names, Guajajara and Tembe, by which
they are best known in the literature. No important differences of culture
or language are known to exist between the Tembe-Tenetehara of the State
of Para and the Guajajara-Tenetehara of the State of Maranhao.
The region inhabited by the Tenetehara is dense tropical rain forest
rich in hardwoods, rubber, copaiba {Copaifera sp.), and various palms,
especially the babassu palm (Orbignya sp.), whose leaves and nuts are
so important in Tenetehara economic life. There is little seasonal varia-
tion in temperature in the region, yet there are two definite seasons:
the rainy season lasting from December through June, and a dry season
from July through November.
The present summary is based on field work done by the authors
for 5 months during 1941-42.
* The field research on which this article is based was made possible by the Museu Nacional, Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil.
137
138 SOUTH AMERICAN INrHANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
HISTORY
The Tenetehara seem to have inhabited this general region since pre-Columbian
times, and they have been in contact with western culture in one form or another for
more than 300 years. As early as 1615, an expedition led by La Ravardiere on the
upper Pindare River encountered Indians whom he called Pinaricns and who were
probably Tenetehara (Guajajara) (Metraux, 1928 a). One year later, Bento Maciel
Parente speaks of killing many Tenetehara (Guajajara) when he traveled up the
Pindare River with 45 Portuguese soldiers and 90 Indian followers (probably
Tupinamha) in search of gold.
In the middle 17th century, the Jesuits made three separate expeditions up the
Pindare River for the purpose of bringing Tenetehara down the river and placing
them in mission villages on the Island of Maranhao. Two expeditions, one led by
Father Francisco Velloso and Father Jose Scares, and the second led by the Jesuit
Superior, Manoel Nunes, in the middle of the 17th century, were partially successful
and founded several mission villages on the lower Pindare, among them Itaquy. The
third expedition, led by the Jesuit Jose Maria Garconi, returned with a large number
of Tenetehara and placed them in the mission village called Cajupe on the lower
Pindare. Later, however, when the Jesuits moved their mission village farther down
river to Maracu (the present town of Vianna), the majority of these missionized
Tenetehara returned to the upper Pindare in fear of their enemies, the Gamela. In
consequence, the Jesuits established a new mission on the upper Pindare at the mouth
of the Caru River. Besides these religious missions, however, it is probable thai
the Tenetehara were in contact with Portuguese adventurers who wandered in this
general region hunting Indians as slaves.
By the middle 18th century, the Tenetehcra are mentioned as inhabiting also the
Grajau and Mearim Rivers, west of the Pindare. At the same time Gustavo Dodt
mentions them (Tetnbe) along the banks of the Gurupi River. In 1840 the pro-
vincial government of Maranhao established the Colony of Sao Pedro do Pindare
for the Indians of the region, with but little success. The Colony of Januario, estab-
lished higher up the Pindare in 1854, was more successful, having a population of 120
Tenetehara almost 20 years later. From the last half of the 19th century until the
present, there has been a steady advance of Neo-Brazilians into Tenetehara territory,
especially along the courses of the Mearim and Grajau Rivers. Except for several
sporadic uprisings, the Tenetehara have always lived at peace with Neo-Brazilians,
and there has been a mutual interchange of culture within the region. Today iron
tools, clothes, myths of Iberian and African origin, and many other elements of
frontier Neo-Brazilian culture are integrated elements in Tenetehara life.
CULTURE
SUBSISTENCE ACTIVITIES
Farming. — Like the extinct coastal Tupi groups, the Tenetehara are
extensive agriculturists. They cultivate principally maize, both bitter and
sweet manioc, card, (Dioscorea sp.), squash, peanuts, beans, and bananas.
At present, they also have large plantations of rice, which they raise pri-
marily to sell to their Neo-Brazilian neighbors.
Annually from July to November, great areas of forest are cleared for
gardens, and the dry vegetation is burned toward the end of November.
The gardens are planted throughout December. All Tenetehara use steel
axes, hoes, and bush knives obtained by trade from Neo-Brazilians.
Plate 13. — Tenetehara boys. Top: Boys dressed for puberty ceremony.
Bottom, left: Boy decorated for puberty ceremony. His father led the song and
his mother danced. Bottom, right: Portrait of young man. (Courtesy Charles
Wagley.)
Plate 14.— Tenelehara women and shaman. Top, Ujt: Girl just before puberty
ceremony. Top, right: Woman and child. Bottom, left: Shaman possessed bv
familiar spirit. Bottom, right: Shaman smoking long tobacco cigar and holding
in his hand an object drawn from a sick patient. (Courtesy Charles Wagley.)
Vol. 3] THE TENETEHARA— WAGLEY AND GALVAO 139
Formerly, only women planted and harvested cotton and peanuts,
while the cultivation of manioc, maize, and other plants was the exclusive
occupation of the men. Today, however, men plant the entire garden,
including cotton and peanuts, and women help now and again in light
garden tasks. Similarly, the preparation of manioc flour and the carrying
of drinking water were exclusively female tasks which a man would have
been ashamed to perform; at present both sexes perform them equally.
Gardens are said to be individually owned, yet most commonly an older
man makes a garden aided by his real and adopted sons, his nephews, and
his sons-in-law. The garden, while used by all in common, is said to be
the individual property of the head of the family.
Wild foods. — Hunting is practiced not only to add meat to a basically
vegetarian diet, but also to collect animal skins for sale to Neo-Brazilian
traders. Tapir {Tapirus terrestris), deer, both the white-lipped and col-
lared peccary, monkeys, agouti {Dasyprocta, gen.), and various forest
fowls are the principal animals hunted. Peccary hides bring especially
good prices at Neo-Brazilian villages, and the Tenet ehara use the money
to buy trade goods, such as clothes, salt, and gunpowder.
Today the favorite means of hunting is with muzzle-loading shotguns.
Yet, lacking money with which to buy guns, many men of each village still
hunt with the bow and arrow.
Fishing is done by ordinary hook and line acquired from Neo-Brazilians.
Fishing by poisoning drying pools with timbo {Serjania sp.) is known
but seldom practiced.
Collecting babassii palm nuts and copaiba oil has acquired extreme im-
portance in modern Tenetehara economic life, especially on the Mearim,
Grajaii, and Pindare Rivers. These products, like rice and furs, can be
sold in order to buy manufactured articles, such as clothes, guns, fish-
hooks, and salt.
HOUSES AND VILLAGES
At present, the Tenetehara houses in the Pindare and Grajau River
regions have a rectangular floor plan with hip-roofs. Both walls and
roofs are covered with babassii palm leaves. This house form is perhaps
Neo-Brazilian, yet people do not remember any other type. In 1924 E. H.
Snethlage (1931) found the Tenetehara houses on the middle Mearim
River of the same type as those of the Neo-Brazilians of the region, and
even in the last century, Gustavo Dodt described Tenetehara (Temhe)
houses on the Gurupi River as straw-roofed with clay adobe walls (Dodt,
1873, p. 194), definitely of Neo-Brazilian type. Snethlage speaks of
houses covered with bark, but considered this type of roof temporary,
explaining its use by the lack of palm leaves in certain districts.
A village generally has two rows of houses with a wide street between
them. Larger villages may have three, four, or more rows. The size of
6S3333^t7— 12
140 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
Tenetehara villages varies greatly. According to a recent census made by
the Servigo de Protecgao aos Indios, the villages of the Pindare and
Grajaii ranged from 35 to more than 800 persons each. Houses are
generally occupied by a matrilineal extended family, although many hold
only a simple family (man, wife, and young children). Extended family
residences are not subdivided by inner walls, but each simple family uses
a portion of the house space, having its separate cooking fire around
which it hangs its sleeping hammocks. Gourds filled with drinking water,
baskets with manioc flour, metal utensils, and other belongings are hung
on the upright supports against the walls. Sometimes high platforms are
made near the roof for the storage of maize, manioc, hides, farming instru-
ments, etc.
Snethlage (1931) saw a large ceremonial house, which was much larger
than the dwellings in the village of Colonia on the Mearim River. It was
situated at the end of the village street. On the Pindare River, the cere-
monial house is no longer erected, but formerly it was built for the Honey
Feast (see p. 146) and destroyed afterward. It seems to have been but
a larger shelter without walls, in which both men and women danced.
CLOTHING
Formerly, the Tenetehara were nude. Men tied the prepuce over the
glans penis with a piece of palm fiber (Lago, 1822, p. 85). Today they
have adopted clothes from the Neo-Brazilians; women always wear skirts
and men wear shirts and pants, only occasionally stripping down to a loin-
cloth for heavy work in the gardens. It is now a matter of prestige to
have new or better clothes than other people.
MANUFACTURES
Basketry. — Basketry is still woven by the Tenetehara, especially in the
villages of the upper Pindare River. A split flexible creeper is used prin-
cipally. Round sieves for straining manioc flour, square baskets with
woven geometric designs, and the flexible tipiti for squeezing the poisonous
juice from bitter manioc are the most common objects of this class.
Weaving. — Native cotton is used almost entirely for string hammocks.
The string is wound horizontally around two vertical posts driven into the
ground ; double vertical strands are twined at a distance of about 21/2 inches
(7.5 cm.) apart.
Gourds. — Eating utensils are made from round gourds. The gourds
are first boiled, then allowed to dry thoroughly, cut in half, and the in-
terior mass scraped out. The interior is stained black with genipa and
frequently the outside is decorated geometrically with incisions or lines of
black genipa dye. Frequently, only a hole is cut in a gourd, and it is used
as a jug for drinking water or wild honey.
Vol. 3] THE TENETEHARA— WAGLEY AND GALVAO 141
Ceramics. — The pottery which Snethlage noted in 1924 (Snethlage,
1931) was simple and generally undecorated, but some vessels had incised
designs.
Today pottery making has been completely abandoned, at least on the
Pindare and Grajau Rivers. The Tenctehara use metal utensils purchased
from Neo-Brazilians.
Weapons. — Bows average 3 feet (1 m.) in length; the belly is convex,
the inside flat. Bows are generally made of pau d'arco wood (Tecoma
conspicua), and the bowstring of twined tucum (Bactris sp.) fibers.
Arrows are comparatively short, averaging only about 3 feet (1 m.) in
length. Nowadays they have steel points made from old bush knives and
bits of metal purchased from Neo-Brazilians and worked cold. Arrow
shafts are of reed (Gynerium sagittatum, a grass).
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION
Each Tenetehara village is politically autonomous. Inter-village rela-
tions are maintained by means of visits for ceremonials and for trade, and
by intermarriages.
Since the time of the Jesuits, each village has had a secular chief (capitao
in Portuguese) appointed by some authority outside the tribe (e.g., Jesuit
missionaries, the Colonial, Imperial, and Republican Governments, and at
present the Servi^o de Protecgao aos Indios). In general, this chief is only
an intermediary between the Indians and the Neo-Brazilians. He is gener-
ally but one of several leaders or heads of the extended families which
make up a village. However, the respect that he is accorded by outsiders
frequently increases his prestige in the eyes of the villagers.
Each family leader unites about him a large number of kin, either in
his own house or in contiguous houses. He may have several young men
living with him whom he calls "son" and as many young women whom
he calls "daughter" (own daughters, real or classificatory brother's
daughter, or wife's real or classificatory sister's daughter) as possible.
Because marriage is matrilocal and sons-in-law must work in the gardens
of their fathers-in-law at least for a year or two, these "daughters" attract
followers for the family leader. According to his individual capacity, the
family leader attracts large extended families more or less permanently
around him.
Extended family groups cooperatively plant large gardens. Frequently,
the leader sells all marketable products, such as skins, rice, and babassu,
produced by the entire group, and proportions the results of the sales
among the individual families. A village generally has four, five, or
more extended families and their leaders, who while not constituting a
formal village council, ultimately decide public questions.
142 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
LIFE CYCLE
Childbirth. — During his wife's pregnancy, a Tenetehara man must
observe elaborate restrictions in his diet and in his hunting activities. He
may not kill or eat jaguars, falcons (Fakonoidea), ant eaters (Tamandua
tetradactyla) , wildcats, parrots, or various other animals and forest fowls.
The purpose of these taboos is to protect the fetus from the "spirit" of
the animal killed or eaten. This "spirit" (piwara) enters the unborn child,
either causing physical abnormalities or giving it some undesirable attribute
of the animal. For example, the spirit of the enormous beaked toucan
(Ramphastos toco) may cause the child to be born with a large nose;
the father who kills a jaguar during his wife's pregnancy may expect to
have an insane child.
A new series of taboos begins for both parents at childbirth. Sexual
relations are prohibited for parents until the "child is hard," that is, until
it begins to have some control over its muscles, 5 or 6 months after the
birth. For a week to 10 days, both parents may eat only manioc flour,
small fish, and roast maize, and must drink only warmed water. Until
the child is weaned, certain meats, such as macaw, white-lipped peccary,
and tapir are forbidden to both parents. Breaking any of these taboos
arrests the development of the infant and may cause its death.
Puberty. — Formerly, adolescents of both sexes were isolated for 10 days
or more in separate huts built especially for the occasion. On the 10th
morning, entrails of the agouti were stretched across the door of the hut,
and the adolescent had to break these in order to leave. Today boys are
seldom isolated at all before their puberty ceremony, and girls may be
isolated only by a palm-leaf screen within the family dwelling or they may
simply lie in their hammocks in one corner of the room. Even today the
girl ends her isolation by breaking the entrails of the agouti stretched
across the door, and is chased by the young men of the village when she
runs to the stream or pool for a bath.
Formerly, a father examined his son's penis after the isolation period,
and, if there were signs of masturbation, the boy was whipped with a vine
rope.
The puberty ceremony is for both sexes (see pis. 13, 14). Boys are
painted red with genipa, and falcon breast feathers are glued on their
breasts and arms (pi. 13). Frequently, the boys carry a wand consisting
of about 30 to 40 tail feathers from the red macaw stuck into a wooden
handle. Girls are simply painted black over their entire bodies and some-
times white falcon breast feathers are glued to their hair.
The puberty ceremony begins at dawn and lasts 24 hours. It consists
mainly of general singing and dancing led by the grandfather of one of
the adolescents. Shamans play an important role, calling their familiar
spirits and falling into trances under the influence of the spirits (see
p. 147). At dawn, after the night of group singing everyone feasts on
Vol. 3] THE TBNETEHARA— WAGLEY AND GALVAO 143
large quantities of meat, the result of hunting during previous days by all
men of the village. At this time the young people are formally given
permission to eat of such meats as peccary, guariba monkey, wild goose,
and various forest fowls, all of which until now were prohibited to them.
Because of this feast, the Neo-Brazilians of the region call the Tenetehara
puberty ceremony the Festival of Roasted Meat (Festa de Moqueado).
Marriage. — Marriage takes two general forms : Frequently, a young
man marries a preadolescent girl, moving to her parents' house and waiting
until after her puberty ceremony to consummate the marriage ; or a girl's
father finds her a husband after her puberty ceremony. In either case,
residence for the couple is matrilocal for at least a year after sexual rela-
tions begin and generally until the birth of a child. There seem not to be
any special marriage ceremonies. After becoming a parent, a young man
of initiative may break away from his father-in-law and set up his own
household.
Monogamy is the general rule, yet there are cases of family leaders with
two and even three wives. In such cases, the wives are usually close rela-
tives; in several instances, they were a widow and her daughter by a
previous marriage.
Death. — Antonio Pereira do Lago, writing in the 19th century, reports
that the Tenetehara buried their dead in the family dwelling, and that the
house was destroyed when a second death occurred. At present, burial is
in a cemetery, always just outside the village; the body is wrapped in a
mat made of babassu palm (Orbignya sp.) leaves, or it may be placed in
a wooden box similar to that used by local Neo-Brazilians. A low roofed
shelter is frequently built over the grave ; such grave shelters were noted
by Dodt on the Gurupi in the last century.
ESTHETIC AND RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Art. — Native art forms are represented today only by a few items, such
as decorated basketwork, incised and painted gourd receptacles, and
feather head bands. Wands are made by sticking innumerable tail feathers
of the red macaw into a wooden handle.
Music. — The Tenetehara are very fond of music. They have not only
retained their native music, but have borrowed the Neo-Brazilian music
of the region. Singing native songs, however, is still the most popular
pastime and the outstanding esthetic of the Tenetehara. There are fre-
quent informal reunions called zingarete (to sing much) in the evenings
throughout the year, when people sing secular songs for recreation. Such
songs last for the greater part of the night, people leaving and joining the
group from time to time. Ceremonies are basically singing festivals and
each has its particular set of songs. To sing such ceremonial songs out
of season would bring supernatural reprisal. The songs of the Honey
144 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
Festival are considered the most beautiful by the Tenetehara. They are
believed to have been learned in mythological times by a young Tenetehara
shaman when he visited a festival of the animals at the Village of the
Jaguar; the songs are those sung by individual animals on that occasion.
Shamans are obliged to have a large repertoire of songs; a group of
songs is attributed to each supernatural being, and the shaman must know
those of his familiar spirits. A good voice is a prerequisite for shamanism.
At shamanistic sessions (p. 147), the shaman sings as he "calls" the
spirit, and the spirit sings through him after he is possessed (pi. 14, bottom,
left) ; the audience joins the shaman in the refrain of the songs. Shaman-
istic sessions are well attended, because they give people a chance to come
together to sing.
In all group singing both men and women sing, the latter in a higher
key, much as among the Tapirape and as described for the Tupinamba.
Musical instruments. — Gourd rattles always accompany singing, but
they are not sacred, as among the coastal Tupi. A trumpet with a bamboo
stem and a cow's horn resonator is used during the Honey Festival ; during
aboriginal times, a gourd resonator was used in place of the cow's horn.
Dancing". — Frequently, during informal singing, the Tenetehara keep
time to the music by stamping with one foot on the ground. During lively
shamanistic sessions and during ceremonies, both sexes dance. Com-
monly, they simply stamp in one spot, with a heavy beat on one foot.
During the Maize Festival, they move in a large circle with a skipping
step ; on other occasions, a line of men faces a line of women and the two
lines advance and retreat from each other. A possessed shaman dances
in a manner indicative of the supernatural possessing him ; for example,
when possessed by the guariba monkey spirit, he postures in imitation of
the monkey, and when possessed by the toad spirit, he hops about like
a toad.
The Tenetehara also frequently hold Neo-Brazilian dances, when men
and women dance in couples to waltzes, "sambas," and local folk tunes.
For these dances, many young Tenetehara have learned to play bamboo
flutes and skin drums. Sometimes a Neo-Brazilian is hired to play the
accordion for dancing.
Games. — No aboriginal games were noted among the Tenetehara. Boys
play tops and marbles in the same manner as the Neo-Brazilian children
of the region.
Narcotics.-— Hashish (Cannabis indica) , or diamba, as it is called
locally, is in widespread use in the region of the Pindare, Mearim, and
Grajau Rivers, both by the Tenetehara and Neo-Brazilians. On the
Pindare River, it is used in long cigarettes made from leaves of the plant
rolled in a thin sheet of bark of tawari tree (Couratari sp.).
Native tobacco plays an important role in Tenetehara religious life,
being used by the shamans in the treatment of illness and in all their
Vol. 3] THE TENETEHARA— WAGLEY AND GALVAO 145
other activities (pi. 14, bottom, right). It is smoked in long funnellike
cigars, about 12 inches (30 cm.) long, wrapped in cane bark. Smoking
of tobacco or hashish is also a general pastime.
There are no indications that the Tenetehara have known any alcoholic
beverages other than those which they now purchase from the Neo-
Brazilians.
RELIGION
Tenetehara supernatural beings (karowara, their generic name) may
be conveniently divided into three groups : culture heroes, forest spirits,
and ghosts, the last being spirits of the dead and spirits of animals. All
except the culture heroes are malignant and make the world so generally
dangerous that the Indians must constantly have recourse to their shamans
for protection.
Culture heroes. — Teiietehara culture heroes are not active supernatural
beings in their modern relations to manldnd, but in myths they are culture
bringers and creators. (See Mythology, p. 147.) Among them, Maira
and Tupan are the principal creators of culture. It is quite possible,
however, that the importance of Tupan has been overemphasized by mis-
sionaries who identified him throughout Brazil with the Christian God.
Tupan was simply the "demon of Thunder" among the coastal Tupi
(Metraux, 1928 b).
Forest spirits. — Maranaiiwa is the owner of the forest and of the
animals inhabiting it, especially of white-lipped peccaries, and he punishes
Tenetehara men who needlessly and wantonly kill this species. Maranaiiwa
may be identified as Corropira or Kuri-pira of other Tupi groups and of
Neo-Brazilian folklore.
Uwan, the spirit which controls the rivers and water life, is given two
other descriptive names: tJpore (ii, water; pore, inhabitant) and tlzare
(ii, water; zare, owner). This supernatural being is identified by local
Neo-Brazilians as the "Mother of Water," a character of Brazilian folk-
lore, tjwan is described by the Tenetehara as a spirit who is always
malignant, and who causes illness.
Zurupari is a forest demon which attracts hunters and leads them astray
until they are lost and then kills them. This spirit corresponds to
Yurupari, or Zurupari, of Neo-Brazilian folklore.
Ghosts. — Wandering ghosts (azang) are the souls of people who died
from sorcery, who broke incest taboos during their life, or who died by
slowly wasting away. The modern Tenetehara explain that the souls of
people who die by other means go to the "home of Tupan," a Christian
explanation.
The azang wander through the forests or near the cemeteries and
abandoned houses. They can transform themselves into animals which
appear to hunters, frightening them and causing them to lose arrows shot
146 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
at them by mistake. The Tenetehara are very frightened of azang, espe-
cially at night ; they always avoid passing near a cemetery or an abandoned
house.
The spirits of dead animals (piwara) mainly enforce restrictions on
diet and on hunting, such as those imposed upon a man during his wife's
pregnancy and his child's early infancy and upon preadolescent children.
If a father of a young child, for example, kills a macaw, the spirit of the
macaw may make the child ill if he is not treated by a shaman sufficiently
strong to control this spirit. Deer, monkeys, forest fowls, toads, tapirs,
and many other animals have such spirits.
CEREMONIALS
Besides the puberty rites, two ceremonies are still held by the Tenetehara
of the Pindare and Grajau River region: The Honey Festival (zemuci-
hawo and the Maize Festival (awaciwahuhawo). The first takes place
during the dry season, and the second accompanies the growth of maize
during the rains from January through March. The Maize Festival is
basically a song feast and dance, which provides a background for shaman-
istic performances. Shamans invoke their familiar spirits in order to
protect the growing maize.
The Honey Festival takes place during the last days of the dry season
and lasts but a few days. Preparations for it, however, require months,
because the Tenetehara must collect wild honey for it throughout the
dry season. Generally, 20 to 30 gourd containers, each holding one to
two liters of honey, must be filled. Each night or so during these months,
the people of the village gather and sing "to bless the honey." Formerly,
the containers of honey were hung to the rafters of a special ceremonial
house built for the occasion ; nowadays, they are stored in any available
empty house. When sufficient honey has been collected, the leader of the
ceremony sends out invitations to nearby villages. During the ceremony,
the Tenetehara dance in a large circle. The songs refer to the original
honey feast held by animals in mythical times (Nimuendaju, 1915).
The honey is mixed with water and consumed by the dancers; when the
honey is gone, the ceremony terminates.
SHAMANISM
In spite of more than 300 years of sporadic contact with missionaries,
shamanism continues to be a very active element of Tenetehara religious
life. In fact, with the decline of native ceremonial life under Neo-Brazilian
influence, the activities of the shamans (paze) absorb most of modern
Tenetehara religious activity. Like the Tupinamba shaman, pay, the
Tenetehara paze is a man of great prestige in his community. At present,
each village has no less than two or three shamans and some large villages
Vol. 3] THE TENETEHARA— WAGLEY AND GALVAO 147
have six or seven; in addition, numerous young men are learning the
art. There are few Tenetehara who do not attempt during their youth
to become shamans.
Tenetehara shamans cure illness by removing the disease-causing objects
through sucking or massaging (pi. 14, bottom, right). During the cure,
the shaman dances and sings, beating time with a rattle and calling his
familiar spirits. Men and women of the village join him in the chorus.
Now and again, he gulps and swallows smoke from his large tubular
cigar, eventually becoming definitely intoxicated. Suddenly, he staggers
backward, grasping his chest to show that his spirit has possessed him.
A shaman must be able "to call" (be possessed by) the same piwara,
or spirit, that has caused the illness in order to be able to extract the
object. He approaches the patient and sucks or massages out the
extraneous object (iimae), i. e., a piece of stone, bone, or wood.
A shaman shows by his actions which spirit has possessed him (pi. 14,
bottom, left). If it is a deer spirit (aropoha piwara), he may eat manioc
leaves; if ghosts (azang), he drinks uncooked tapioca flour mixed with
water; and if any familiar spirit, he frequently rubs the lighted end
of his cigar over his bare chest and arms without being burned. Several
informants told of Tenetehara shamans who swallow burning coals from
a fire while possessed by the spirit of the kururu toad {Bufo sp.). Sneth-
lage (1927, p. 132) also observed this. On occasions, the familiar spirit
is "too strong" for a shaman, and he falls unconscious, remaining extended
upon the ground for an hour or more until the spirit leaves him.
The power of a Tenetehara shaman depends upon the number of
familiar spirits he can "call." Commonly, shamans have five or six
such familiar spirits. Because iiwan, the owner of water, frequently
causes illness, this spirit is most frequently called in cures. At present,
on the Pindare River, there are no shamans who count among their
familiar spirits the toad spirit (kurura piwara), the forest demon,
Maranaiiwa, or the jaguar spirit (zawara piwara) . So powerful are these
three spirits that no modern shamans dare "call" them. A shaman
spends many years learning "to call" his various familiar spirits by
singing and acquiring the power to withstand them when possessed. He
sometimes visits many villages to learn from other shzunans and to acquire
a larger number of familiar spirits.
MYTHOLOGY
In Tenetehara mythology, two culture heroes stand out, Tupan and
Maira. The figure of Tupan has probably been emphasized by missionary
influence; he appears as a creator and protector. Maira, however, is
clearly a native culture creator. He is the donor of fire, which he stole
from the vultures, hiding it in a stick of urucu wood so that the Tenete-
hara might use this soft wood to make fire. Maira also brought manioc
148 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
and maize to the Tenet ehara. Maira was the father of the Maira-iira,
who was born after his father had abandoned his mother. While wander-
ing in search of Maira, her husband, this woman conceived a second
time when she stayed one night in the house of Mukwiira. From these
two unions were born the twins Maira-iira (ura, son) and Mukwiira-
iira. A detailed myth is told of the adventures of these twins in their
search for Maira.
The Tenetehara also tell various cycles of animal stories. One cycle
deals with the difficulties of the Gamba (Didelphis sp.) in arranging a
satisfactory husband for his daughter and of how he is followed when
trying to imitate the various animals. For example, the girl marries
the wood tick, and Gamba, dissatisfied with his new son-in-law, tries to
imitate the wood tick by floating to the ground on a leaf from a tree
top, but falls hard to the earth. There is also a long cycle in which
the tortoise has a trickster role. Other stories recount the Rolling Head
and the Festival of the Animals. Modern Tenetehara legends include a
large series that are of Iberian and Africo-Brazilian origin.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barbosa Rodngues, 1872; Bettendorf, 1910; Dodt, 1873; Froes Abreu, 1931; Kis-
senberth, 1912; Lago, 1822; Lopes, 1934; Marques, C. A., 1870; Metraux, 1928 a.
1928 b; Moraes, 1860; Nimuendaju, 1915; Plagge, 1857; Ribeiro, 1841; Leite, 1943;
Snethlage, E. H., 1927, 1931 a ; Wagley, 1942, 1943 a.
THE ARCHEOLOGY OF THE AMAZON BASIN
By Betty J, Meggers
INTRODUCTION
The Amazon has its source in the Andes close to the Pacific and flows
northeast 4,000 miles to empty into the Atlantic at the Equator. A dozen
large tributaries flow into it at intervals, draining four-tenths of the con-
tinent. At the mouth of the Rio Negro the valley is about 200 miles wide,
but between the Tapajoz and Xingii Rivers it narrows to 50 or less. Below
and above these points the uplands retreat sharply from the river and the
valley widens abruptly. Above the Madeira River the forests are just out
of water and are inundated long before the river attains its maximum flood
level. The natural vegetation of the valley and the uplands is selva, except
for scattered savanna lands north of the river and on the Island of Marajo.
In this immense area archeology has made little progress. Here there
are none of the large imperishable buildings which mark sites of former
human habitation for the archeologist in Peru, and the virgin forest
effectively obscures all lesser clues on the surface. The discovery of a site
often a,waits an accident such as occurred at Santarem when a cloudburst
washed out the streets and revealed quantities of pottery. In the more
open country on Marajo Island and in the Mojos area of Bolivia, the
existence of mounds makes the task somewhat easier.
Stone is scarce in most of the valley and was not a major item in the
material culture. Few stone tools, mainly polished axes and celts, have
been recovered. The perishable objects which took their place have not
survived. Metal tools are rare and were acquired by trade from the
Andes and later from the Europeans. As a result, pottery is almost all
that the archeologist can hope to find.
Attempts have been made to link the archeological remains with known
Indian groups. Many of the earlier writers attributed the elaborate
pottery to the Carih, whose presence had been recorded along the lower
Amazon. The tendency of the later writers has been to favor the Arawak,
whose high cultural level and widespread migrations are offered as an
explanation for the similarities noted from southern Brazil to the Antilles.
The question has not yet been settled to the satisfaction of all, however.
149
Vol. 3] ARCHEOLOGY OF THE AMAZON BASIN— MEGGERS 151
SOURCES
The written sources leave much to be desired. The early work was done
largely by men trained in other fields, and it is difficult to know what
reliance to place upon their conclusions. The more recent publications
are for the most part general summaries or descriptions of collections in
museums. An exception is Linne (1928 b), who describes some of the
sites excavated by Nimuendaju in Northeast Brazil. Except for
Palmatary on Santarem, Metraux on the Upper Amazon, and Goeldi on
Cunany, the following sources deal mainly with Mara jo : Angyone Costa
(1934), Farabee (1921 a), Goeldi (1900), Hartt (1871, 1876, 1885),
Holdridge (1939), Joyce (1912), Lange (1914), Linne), (1925, 1928 a,
1928b), Metraux (1930a), Mordini (1934), Netto (1885), Nordenskiold
(1930 a), Palmatary (1939), Penna (1877-78), Steere (1927), Torres,
H. A. (1929, 1930, 1940), and Uhle, M. (1923).
The largest and most representative museum collections of Amazon
pottery are in the Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Belem, Brazil; the
Ethnographical Museum, Goteborg, Sweden ; and the University of Penn-
sylvania Museum, Philadelphia, Pa. The Musee du Trocadero, Paris, has
a collection from the Middle Amazon, and the American Museum of
Natural History in New York one from Pacoval on Marajo Island.
ARCHEOLOGICAL REGIONS
In this article, the Amazon has been divided for convenience into four
areas: Marajo Island, Northeast Brazil, the Santarem region, and the
Middle Amazon. The sites in Northeast Brazil (map 2) — Caviana,
Maraca, and Cunany — ^have been grouped together on the basis of a few
traits which they have in common and by which they differ from Marajo
and Santarem. These are the absence of mounds, with the burial urns
placed directly in the ground or in caves, the presence of anthropomorphic
funerary urns, the interment of two or more individuals in a single urn,
and similarities in the pottery. The urns from these sites show very
marked differences in form and detail which indicate the maintenance of
distinct local styles in spite of close areal proximity and contemporaneity.
Marajo Island is characterized by the presence of mounds containing
burial urns and domestic pottery including tangas, and by a distinctive
style of decoration in which painted and incised designs are prominent.
At Santarem, both mounds and burial urns are absent. Vessels of unusual
shapes, often resting on caryatids and ornamented with bird and animal
figures in full round, are characteristic.
A hundred and fifty miles up the Tapajoz River and above the Serra de
Parintins on the Amazon, burial urns again appear. The latter area, which
we have called the Middle Amazon, includes sites at Miracanguera,
Manaos, and Teffe. This area is little known and no accounts of exca-
152 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
vations have been published. A comparison of two anthropomorphic urns
from sites in the area over 500 miles apart shows a similarity in style.
Other fragments are reminiscent of Santarem and Mara jo. The upper
reaches of the Amazon are virtually unknown archeologically.
The general culture-subsistence pattern for the Amazonian area was
probably quite uniform. Agriculture was supplemented by hunting, fish-
ing, and gathering. The high development of the ceramic art, as well
as the amount of labor which would have been required to build the stone
walls along the coast and the mounds on Marajo, presupposes relatively
large communities and indicates an economic and social organization ad-
vanced enough to permit the expenditure of large amounts of time and
effort on projects unprofitable from the point of view of subsistence. The
presence of greenstone objects on Marajo believed to originate from some-
where in the vicinity of Obidos is evidence of widespread trade connections.
Early explorers on the Amazon reported that the pottery of Santarem
was an important item of barter, and the discovery of a clay bird head
on the Island of Carriacou in the Antilles identical with those found at
Santarem substantiates their statements. The stone works along the coast
are presumed to be evidence that an advanced type of religion was prac-
ticed there.
Chronological relationships are uncertain. At Caviana and Maraca
objects of European origin have been found in association with the pottery,
indicating that these cultures were flourishing in post-Columbian times.
Cunany is also dated as contemporary with the Conquest. At Carao on
the Mayacare, however, no objects of European origin or showing Euro-
pean influence have been discovered. Although no objects of European
manufacture have been found on Marajo, the reports of travelers on the
lower Amazon in the 17th century indicate that fine pottery was still being
made there at that time. Nordenskiold (1930 a, pp. 33-34) has suggested
the possibility of arriving at a chronology by comparison with the Andean
area, where a relatively precise time sequence has been established. The
extension of this method to the Amazon cultures, however, awaits de-
tailed study of the whole region. At present, it is impossible to say what
the actual relationships are.
The pottery from Santarem presents a problem because it differs so
markedly from that in the rest of the valley. It approaches the pottery
of the Antilles in some respects, and the use of the caryatid, of the tripod,
and of frogs in jumping position as ornaments are characteristics rem-
iniscent of Central America.
The descriptions given in this account must be recognized as tentative
and incomplete. A description of the archeology of the Amazon is largely
a story of problems unsolved and work still to be done. To date, this area
has attracted the interest of few trained archeologists. The written sources
offer few details of the sites and circumstances of discovery of the pottery,
Vol. 3] ARCHEOLOGY OF THE AMAZON BASIN— MEGGERS 153
and even these are often contradictory. Another difficulty is that the
Amazon Valley has never been mapped in detail. As a result many of
the places referred to in the early literature cannot be found on a map.
The pottery in museum collections is not accompanied by any information
about its excavation and, although attempts have been made to draw con-
clusions from its study, much more could be gained by a few sessions in
the field. Nimuendaju has engaged in some explorations in recent years,
and the publication of his findings should contribute substantially to our
knowledge.
MARA JO ISLAND
Mounds. — Since 1870, Marajo Island has been the classic spot in
Amazon archeology. Located in the mouth of the river just south of the
Equator, it has an area of 14,000 square miles and an elevation of about
3 feet (1 m.) above river level in the dry season. At this time of the year
all but a few of the larger rivers are dry and water is scarce. The opposite
situation occurs in the wet season, when the greater part of the island is
flooded. The north central section is rendered uninhabitable by the pres-
ence of immense swamps. In the west are dense forests. Across most
of the remainder of the island stretch the level campos, broken here and
there by clumps of trees and by artificial mounds.
These mounds have proved a fertile field for the archeologist. More
than 100 are known, and these are usually located on river banks or at
the edges of lakes or swamps. Some were evidently used only as dwell-
ing sites. Others served both as house substructures and for burial pur-
poses. It has not been determined whether any were used exclusively
for burial. Although these mounds have long been known, few of them
have been located on a map or described in any detail. None have been
scientifically excavated. No conclusions have been reached about their
relative age. There is disagreement as to whether or not stratification is
present. Opinion is also divided on the question of intentional zoomorphic
shape.
The most famous of the mounds is Pacoval in Lake Arari. It was first
described by Hartt in 1871, and since then it has been visited repeatedly.
It is located close to the east shore of the lake immediately south of the
Igarape das Almas. It is oblong and divided into two parts, the main
mound and a small one at the north end of it and separated from it by a
channel. The north-south length is about 90 m. (290 ft.), the width about
38 m. (125 ft.), and the height about 4 m. (13 ft.) when the water level
is low. Steere (1927) was able to distinguish three strata showing dif-
ferences in pottery design and other ornaments, with the best examples
in the lowest level and the poorest at the top. Penna (1877) confirmed
this sequence on his visit and concluded that these represented phases of
a declining civilization. Derby (in Hartt, 1885, p. 22) however states
154 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
that "all the objects, plain as well as ornamented, were encountered near
the surface and in the middle and lower parts of the mound so that it does
not seem possible to establish divisions in the deposit." Although stone
objects are rare, pottery is abundant here as in most of the mounds.
Penna (1877, p. 53) speaks of pottery as covering the ground like a
great mosaic. Lange (1914, p. 321) was able to collect over 3,000 speci-
mens in the course of a week.
Pottery similar to that from Pacoval is found at Ilha dos Bichos, a
mound of about half an acre in extent which rises 5 to 8 m. (about 16
to 26 ft.) above the plain along Arari River north of Cachoeira. This
was examined by Steere in 1870, and he distinguished two layers of
occupation separated by a layer of earth. Burial urns were visible at
different levels in the ravines which had been washed in the sides of
the mound.
Along the Anajas River is a group of mounds known as Os Camutins.
Derby (in Hartt, 1885, pp. 23-25) describes four in some detail and
states that his informant mentioned 12 in a distance of 1^^ miles (about
2.4 km.), all but one on the east side of the river. The majority are
in the narrow zone of trees along the bank but at least two are farther
off on the plain. The principal mound has a length of approximately
210 m. (680 ft.), a width of 80 m. (260 ft.) at the base, and a height
of about 13 m. (42 ft.) above the level of the surrounding plain. It is
covered with vegetation, and the slopes have been eroded into ravines.
On the west side of the river is a large excavation which appears to have
furnished the earth for the construction of the mounds. Derby states that,
the pottery encountered in the largest mound of the Camutins is of the same charac-
ter as that from Pacoval. From what I could observe it appears that the large jars
are more frequently painted than incised, contrary to what is observed at Pacoval.
The predominant shape is large, depressed and globular, while at Pacoval smaller
sub-cylindrical and conical forms are more common. These observations are insuf-
ficient as a basis for a distinction and all the principal shapes are represented in both
sites. Fragments of tangas are extremely abundant, but no complete ones were
found. The majority are red in color and undecorated, although I saw some painted
like those from Pacoval. [Hartt, 1885, p. 25.]
Monte Carmelo is located near the source of the Anajas River. Frag-
ments of pottery are exposed here from the river bed to the summit.
Three stratified layers were observed by Holdridge (1939). The top
and bottom ones contained quantities of simple, red pottery both incised
and plain. Between these two was a layer containing the highly developed
incised, sculptured, and painted ware which is characteristic of the highest
development on Marajo.
Teso de Severino was described by Mordini (1934, pp. 63-64). This
mound is located near the Igarape de Severino, a tributary of Lake
Aran. It has been completely leveled and is marked only by a ring
of old trees which outlines its former extent. The pottery here is more
c
Plate 15. — Amazonian pottery from Counany. Red-on-yellow ware. (After
Goeldi, 1900, pis. 1, 2, 3.)
Plate 16.— Amazonian burial urns from Marajo. a, Modeled hichrome with
white shp (height approximately 3 ft. (92 cm.)), b, Two modeled urns both
with inverted bowl lids and found superimposed. These represent a double
burial with cremated remains in small urn and entire body in larger one
(Total height approximately 4 ft. 7^ inches (1.41 m.) .) c, Modeled champlev^
urn with white paint filler in designs (height approximately 1 ft. (30 cm.)).
d, White-shpped incised (height approximately 1 ft. (30 cm.)). (Courtesy
University Museum, Philadelphia.)
a
Plate 17. — Amazonian pottery from Marajo. a. Platter-bowl with annular
base, white-slipped with some interior painting. 6, White-slipped and incised
urn (height 9 inches (23 cm.)), c, Unslipped incised (height 8 inches (20 cm.)).
d, Interior of white-slipped, incised and red zoned bowl (greatest diameter 17J4
inches (44.5 cm.)), {a-c. Courtesy University Museum, Philadelphia; d,
courtesy American Museum of Natural History.)
Plate 18. — Amazonian pottery from Marajo and Santarem. n, b, Hollow
figurines, Santarem. (Larger, approximately 5 inches (13 cm.) high.) c, d,
Marajo effigy burial urns, incised white, red retouched decoration. (Respective
heights, 14 inches (35.5 cm.) and 8% inches (21 cm.).) e, Marajo red on white
(heiglrt, 9 inches (23 cm.).) /, Maraj6 incised white, red retouched (height,
approximately 8 inches (20 cm.).) g, Maraj6 red and blact ;on white (height,
7Ji inches (19.5 cm.).) h-j, Tangas, or women's pottery "fig leaves." (a, b,
Courtesy University Museum, Philadelphia; others, courtesy American Mu-
seum of Natural History.)
Vol. 3] ARCHEOLOGY OF THE AMAZON BASIN— MEGGERS 155
advanced in design and technique than that from Pacoval. The clay is
finer and better fired, the workmanship more careful, and the vessels
are partly covered with a kind of glaze probably produced by the resin o^
jutaisica. Tangas found here are decorated with complicated stylized
anthropomorphic motifs. The characteristic frieze of vertical and diagonal
lines with the intervening spaces painted a solid color found on tangas from
Pacoval, does not occur here.
Santa Izabel, located on the plain northwest of Lake Arari, has
also been leveled to the surface of the plain. Penna (1877, p. 51)
describes the artifacts as inferior in number and extent to those o!
Pacoval, but as rivaling the ceramics of the latter in choice of material
and perfection of designs, painting, and relief.
Fortaleza was visited by Farabee. The mound
had been built up artificially and then used as a village site. Apparently the people
had cremated the remains of their dead and buried the ashes in small urns in the
floor of their houses. These urns were beautifully decorated with incised lines or
paint or both. Many plates, small bowls, cooking pots, and seats were found buried
with these urns. [P. 145.] Four other mounds in the vicinity were excavated but
nothing of value was found. They had been used as house sites only, as was indicated
by the presence of ashes and fragments of pottery. [Farabee, 1921 a, p. 144.]
Larenjeiras is located northeast of Lago Guajara. It is 5 m. (15 ft.)
in height and covers over 2 acres. Pottery of all types is abundant.
These brief accounts represent practically all the definite information
that has been published about the mounds. A dozen more are mentioned
by name and vaguely located but not described at all, Mordini (1934,
p. 62) cites Serra, Teso do Gentios, Menino Deus, and Panellas in
the area enclosed by the Ganhao and Cururu Rivers and Lakes IVIututi
and Asapao. These and a group of seven small mounds on the road
from Cajuliros to Faz Cafe are oval and oriented in an east-west-
direction. Pacoval do Cururu, IMataforme, and Ananatuba, also oval,
are oriented north-south.
Pottery. — In general, pottery shapes are varied but the paste appears to
be constant. The basic clay is light gray which turns orange-red in
firing. Sand admixture is rare. The texture varies from coarse to medium,
depending on the size and number of particles of pounded sherd used
as temper. In some cases these are large enough to retain traces of
the original white slip. IVIanufacture was by the coiling method, and
overlapping layers are visible on the interiors of some of the figurines.
Firing was done in a kiln and was sufficient to change the color of the
paste only on the surface, except in cases where the walls were thin.
The following classification of wares based on surface finish was made
by Junius Bird after an examination of the collection from Pacoval
at the American Museum of Natural History. These were probably
not all contemporary but lack of documentation makes it impossible
to establish the chronological sequence.
653333—47—13
156 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
Plain ware.
Incised plain ware. Both fine and broad incised lines occur, sometimes combined
witli punctate marks (pi. 17, c).
Incised white. The surface is covered with a white slip and decorated with fine
incised lines (pis. 16, d; 17, b). The color of the slip varies from white through
cream to orange as a result of variations in firing.
Incised white, red retouch. Like the preceding except that the incised design is
accented in places by the addition of red paint to the incisions (pis. 17, d; 18, /).
Red champleve. Red slipped ware in which the background or field of the
design has been cut back from the original surface and roughened.
Red champleve, cream paint in cuts. The design is produced by the same tech-
nique as in the preceding. A contrast is made between the cut-out parts
and the rest of the design by the addition of a light-colored paint to the
cuts (pi. 16, c).
Double-slipped champleve. Here the red slip was applied over a white
slip and shaved off in the cut-out areas. The use of a double slip produced
the same contrast as the preceding method but eliminated the rough surface
caused by the presence of tempering granules in the paste.
Incised plain ware, white paint inlay. The designs are applied in bands around the
rim and are composed of finely incised lines and a deeply gouged background
which were filled with white paint.
Painted ware. Painted decoration was used by itself or in combination with incised
and relief ornament (pis. 16, a, b; 18, e, g-j). Red and brown paint were used
separately or together on a light-colored slipped surface.
Two Other types occur in the collection at the Museum of Anthropol-
ogy, University of Michigan:
Incised red. The decoration is in simple geometric patterns of broad incised lines
which go through the slip to the orange paste surface to produce a two-color
design.
White champleve. The incised lines and indented areas show the orange
original surface while the intervening areas have a white slip.
Nonfunerary pottery is abundant and varied in forin. Water jars with
narrow mouths are common at Pacoval. Handles, which are present on
some, are of two types : two protuberances or lugs placed below the rim,
and handles perforated for the insertion of a cord. Large plates or dishes
are common but are usually recovered only as fragments. Bowls vary in
shape from deep flat-bottomed ones with sloping sides to shallow concave
ones. Some are circular, others oval. The former have level rims, and
the rims of the latter rise to a high point at the ends and slope downward
to the center of the long sides. Decoration on this type is painted or
incised, and relief ornament is sometimes found on the rim. Some are
decorated both on the interior and exterior and others on the interior only.
An unusual form is a bowl with a flaring annular base and an extremely
broad concave horizontal rim, so broad that it almost triples the diameter
of the vessel (pi. 17, a). The interior is painted red or brown on a white
or cream slip. The exterior is usually unslipped and undecorated. Of
problematical use is the so-called "offertorio" of the older writers. It is a
flat or slightly concave disk on a slightly flaring annular base. A few are
Vol. 3] ARCHEOLOGY OF THE AMAZON BASIN— MEGGERS 157
oval. The usual size is about 17 cm. (6^ in.) in diameter and 7 cm.
(2^ in.) tall. Some, however, are only half this large. They are un-
slipped and the surface of the disk is covered with incised patterns. In
the case of the smaller vessels these design areas are often cross-hatched
An anthropomorphic face in low relief is often used as decoration on the
side. Anthropomorphic and zoomorphic vessels are rare (pi. 18, c, d).
Jars of several shapes have been called funerary urns. One has the
form of two truncated cones joined together at a point about one-fourth
of the distance from the bases of the vessels (pis. 16, d; 17, b). Another
type has a globular body with a flat bottom and a cylindrical neck with
an everted lip (pi. 16, c). In a third type the body is also globular,
but the neck has the shape of a short truncated cone joined to the body at
its base (pi. 18, e, g). The height of all these rarely exceeds 60 cm. (24
in.). Much larger are the urns with anthropomorphic faces in relief on the
neck (pi. 16, a, b, c). These may be as much as 95 cm. (37 in.) tall with a
rim diameter of 75 cm. (28 in.). They have globular bodies which taper
down to an extremely small flat base only about 18 cm. (5 in.) in diameter.
The neck joins the body at a pronounced shoulder and terminates in a
widely flaring rim. The greatest diameter of the body is only a little
more than that of the rim. Two anthropomorphic faces in low relief
adorn the neck, one at front and one at back. A small human figure often
occupies the intervening space at each side. The body of the vessel is
covered with painted decoration in large curvilinear patterns.
Figurines. — Figurines, or "idolos," are variations of the seated type
found in many parts of South America. The larger ones are hollow (fig.
16, right). The legs are separated and rounded at the end. Often there
is a ridge across the base of the tip to represent the foot, which is left
smooth or marked with three to eight toes. Arms are shown at the sides,
raised, or only suggested by a protuberance or lateral extension at each
shoulder. Heads differ in shape and detail, but almost invariably the nose
and eyebrows are joined to form a Y or T. The sex is usually indicated
and is, in a majority of cases, female. In addition to these separate
figurines, many anthropomorphic and zoomorphic heads are found which
once were part of the relief and molded decoration of vessels. These are
generally solid. Some show traces of slip and decoration, while others
have the orange-red color and rather rough surface of the unslipped clay.
Tangas. — Tangas, which are found in abundance, are thought to have
been worn by the women as a pubic covering (pi. 18, h-j). They are
triangular in shape, about 15 cm. (6 in.) long and 12 cm. (5 in.) wide
at the upper edge. The upper edge is convex and the other two are con-
cave. The inner surface is concave and the outer convex. There is a
small pierced hole, 1 to 2 cm. from each corner, for the insertion of a cord
for attachment to the body. Many show grooves where the friction of
the cord has worn away the clay. The clay used is always very fine, and
158
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143.
Figure 16. — Maracd and Marajo pottery. Left: Maracd urn (height, approximately
2j4 ft. (75 cm.)). Right: Marajo hollow figurine (red-on-white) (height 24 cm.
(9j/2 in.) ). (After Nordenskiold, 1930 a, pi. 18 and Frontispiece.)
the objects themselves are often exceedingly thin. Both surfaces are
smoothed and usually slipped either red or white. The outer surface in
the latter case is decorated with great care and beauty in a symmetrical
pattern. Mordini (1934) noted that the majority of the tangas found at
Pacoval show consistently the same border pattern across the top. This
was not found on tangas from Teso de Severino. Tangas with dark red
slip and no decoration are found at Camutins.
Decorative styles. — Holdridge (1939, p. 74) states that
while there are slight regional differences in the pottery designs and manner of execu-
tion, there is a general identity of artistic motives and technic that points to an island-
wide cultural integrity. The most complicated designs found in the Chaves pottery
can be duplicated satisfactorily in a piece from Soure.
This continuity of style makes it possible to list a few very characteristic
features. One of the most common geometrical motifs in painted, incised,
or relief decoration is the spiral which occurs in many variations, single
and interlocking. Also characteristic are stylized representations of the
human face which occur in almost an infinite variety and produce a sym-
metrical design used on tangas as well as on funerary urns and other
vessels. The T is another design element often used. The sides of
Vol. 3] ARCHEOLOGY OF THE AMAZON BASIN— MEGGERS 159
funerary urns sometimes show an H-like motif in relief. Relief decoration
was usually confined to the rim except on the larger vessels, where an-
thropomorphic and zoomorphic heads in the round were used as decoration
on rims and as applique on the sides. These as well as the figurines show
conventional treatment both in modeling and painting. The most char-
acteristic facial feature is the joining of the eyebrows and nose in a Y or T.
Zoomorphic heads sometimes have coffee-bean eyes and are generally
more crude than the anthropomorphic heads. Characteristic of the latter
are a double protuberance to indicate the ear, a protuberance on the top
of the head, and conventional painted outlines of eyebrows, eyes, nose,
mouth, and ears.
Burial. — Secondary urn burial was practiced throughout the island.
The urns were buried in the mounds and the most richly decorated were
sometimes placed inside cruder ones for protection. A shallow bowllike
cover was inverted on top (pi. 16, b). At Camutins, the large urns
contained whole bodies placed in seated position while the small urns held
the ashes of cremated individuals (Farabee, 1921 a, p. 145).
When the urn was placed in the grave, the bottom of the hole was dug to fit it,
so that all of the smaller pieces of pottery placed with the dead were deposited at
the side of the neck on the shoulder of the urn. [Ibid., p. 146.]
NORTHEAST BRAZIL
Caviana. — Caviana is an island about 50 miles long lying in the mouth
of the Amazon north of Marajo. At a cemetery in the southeast of the
island, Nimuendajii (Linne, 1928 b) excavated a group of funerary urns.
These had been buried directly in the ground. They are of several types
and show diversity in the technical skill of the makers as well as in the
shape and style of the decoration of the vessel. An urn 33 cm. (13 in.)
tall with the mouth at the side and a tiered profile was found at Apany. A
similar vessel from Para was described by Joyce (1912). Both are crudely
made and have applique decoration of lumps of clay. A more advanced
type is a semicylindrical urn with a stylized human figure outlined in low
relief on one side. A third type has painted decoration reminiscent of that
found on pottery from Ukupi and Cunany. A seated anthropomorphic
urn illustrated by Nordenskiold (1930 a, pi. 20) resembles those from
Maraca. The features are in low relief, and the painted decoration is red
and gray.
Glass beads, metal knives and axes, and small brass bells from European
trade were found with the urns and establish their origin as post-
Columbian. Small objects, possibly ornaments, of greenstone were also
found.
In the urns, the smallest bones were placed at the bottom, the large ones
at the sides, and the skull on top. A single urn sometimes contained the
remains of more than one individual. Occasional anthropomorphic urns
160 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
have two faces, and Linne (1928 b, p. 79) postulates that such an urn was
destined to contain two skeletons.
Although its geographical position is that of a link between Mara jo and
Brazilian Guiana, culturally Caviana is most closely allied with the main-
land. The differences which exist between it and Marajo are striking.
The only features which are common to both are secondary urn burial
and the custom of painting the bones red. The absence of mounds, the
anthropomorphic character of the urns, and the style of relief and painted
decoration indicate stronger affiliations between Caviana and the coast to
the north. Nimuendaju (Linne, 1928 b) has explained this by the theory
that the inhabitants of Caviana, the Arud, immigrated from Brazilian
Guiana and returned there when the pressure of the Europeans became
too strong.
Maraca. — This site has been known since 1870. It is located on a small
tributary of the Maraca River which flows through Brazilian Guiana and
empties into the Amazon almost at the Equator. There are no mounds.
The pottery was found in natural grottos at the edge of a plain close to the
river. Funerary urns are abundant, and the majority are in the form of
a human being seated on a bench. The trunk, arms, and legs are cylindrical
(fig. 16, left). The head which forms the cover is about 18 cm. (7 in.)
high and has a flat top covered with small knobs. The features of the face
are made by ribbons of clay and are enclosed at top and sides by a relief
stripe. The sex is either male or female. These figures often have painted
ornaments, and Nordenskiold (1930 a, p. 20) reports that the calf of the
leg is swollen, indicating perhaps that binding was practiced by the people.
One of these urns was ornamented with green, blue, and white glass beads
attached to the arms and spine. These date from the 17th-century Euro-
pean trade contact and indicate the manufacture of these urns in the post-
Columbian period. Zoomorphic urns in this same tubular style have also
been found in the caves.
The paste is coarse and composed of clay mixed with sand. Cariape (a
vegetal temper) does not appear to have been used. The workmanship
is crude ; the vessel walls are thick and irregular, and the surface is rough.
Paint was restricted to the ornaments mentioned above, and the surface
of the vessel as a whole exhibits the tan to orange-brown color produced
by firing. Firing was not thorough enough to bake the walls through, and
the interior retains the original dark gray color.
According to Penna (1877), these urns contained entire skeletons. The
bones were arranged with the pelvis at the bottom, the rest of the bones
along the sides, and the skull on top.
Cunany. — The Cunany site on the coast of Brazilian Guiana was dis-
covered by Coudreau in 1883 and described in detail by Goeldi in 1895
( 1900) . The funerary urns were found in artificial subterranean galleries.
Goeldi offered the hypothesis that the ancestors of the builders lived in an
Vol. 31 ARCHEOLOGY OF THE AMAZON BASIN— MEGGERS 161
area where caves occurred naturally and were used as repositories for
burial urns. Their descendents, accustomed to this situation and finding
no natural caves in this new area, constructed substitutes. Fragments of
pottery identical with those from Cunany were found recently by
Nimuendaju (Linne, 1928 b) in a cave of Mont Ukupi near the Arucara
River. If Goeldi's hypothesis is correct, these later discoveries may be of
greater age. Linne (1928 b, p. 73) states that it is possible to detect some
evolution in the painted decoration. The Cunany urns are believed to be
post-Columbian or contemporary with the Conquest.
The paste is gray or bluish in cross section. The amount of sand is
small and large amounts of crushed sherds were used as temper, especially
in the thick-walled vessels. A microscopic examination showed no ad-
mixture of ashes of caraipe or of sponges. Firing was sufficient to bake
the thin-walled vessels but those with thick walls show a poorly baked
center. Fine white clay was used as a slip.
A variety of forms are found, almost all of which are divided into
horizontal zones by the more or less sharp changes in plane of the vessel
wall, by relief bands, or by changes in design motif. Shapes include large
jars with globular bodies and straight necks ; jars with small bases, con-
stricted necks and wide rims, often with anthropomorphic facial features
in low relief (pi. 15, d, g) ; bowls with vertical sides and flaring rims (pi.
15, h, i) ; rectangular vessels with flat bottoms and outward flaring sides
(pi. 15, c, e) ; and oval "boat-shaped" vessels on a cylindrical pedestal
(pi. 15, a).
Ornament is painted and relief. Painted designs are red on a yellowish
slip. The rim and base are sometimes painted solid red. Frets, spirals,
steps, commas, and a rambling three-line design are typical geometrical
motifs. The corners are occasionally ornamented with a row of vertical
notches. Relief decoration includes the outline of a human face on the rim
and of the human body on the body of the vessel, and anthropomorphic and
zoomorphic figures in the round jutting out from the sides of bowls and
rectangular vessels.
All of the vessel shapes listed above except the large jars with globular
bodies and straight necks were recorded by Goeldi as having contained
traces or fragments of human bones.
Rio Calsoene. — On high points along the coast of Brazil north of the
Amazon, as for example on the Calsoene River and on the tributaries of
the Cunany River, rows of stones have been found. The largest of these
is located on the Estancia Jose Antonio on the north bank of the lower
Calsoene River. It is 100 m. (325 ft.) long but has been damaged in
many places. One hundred and fifty stones of all sizes are visible above
ground. The largest measures 2 m. (6^ft.) by 70 cm. (26^/2 in.) by
25 cm. (9^4 in.), and has an estimated weight of 600 kilograms (1,323
lbs. ) . These stones must have been brought from a considerable distance,
162 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
an enormous task with primitive methods of hauling and transportation.
Excavations made by Nimuendaju (Linne, 1928 b) show that these rocks
were not placed over graves. Little pottery was found in the vicinity, and
much of that was in a fragmentary state. A vessel with a wide mouth
was covered with a large stone slab and protected by two stones at the
sides. A few other similar objects have been discovered in the ground.
To explain these structures we must resort to speculation, but it seems
probable that they had a religious purpose.
Ilha de Carao. — Ilha de Carao is located in a swamp at the mouth of
the Mayacare River. On it is a mound about 10 meters (33 ft.) long
and 2.2 meters (6 ft. 8 inches) high. It is stratified into three distinct
layers. The lowest, composed of ashes, is 70 cm. (26>4 in.) thick and
covered with a thick layer of potsherds. These appear to be mainly
from platters as much as 80 cm. (30^^ in.) in diameter. They show
incised decorations as well as traces of red and white paint. The second
stratum is about 50 cm. (19^ in.) thick and composed of gray dirt.
On top is a layer of yellow clay 1 meter (3 ft. 3 in.) thick. Some
stones belonging to the same category as those described from the Cal-
soene River had been set up on the summit. Pottery fragments in the
two upper layers were so badly disintegrated that only sherds from a
few small vessels were preserved.
The three layers of the mound do not appear to correspond to three diflferent
cultures. While the thick debris of the lowest level may be the product of an
independent ancient population, it must be recognized that the differences of technique,
decoration, etc. are not great enough to furnish absolute proof for this hypothesis.
The pottery of the two upper layers appears to belong to a single period, although
some vessels are buried deeper than others. [Linne, 1928 b, pp. 75-76.]
This mound was apparently constructed prior to European contact since
no object of European origin or showing European influence has been
found associated with it.
SANTAREM
Distribution. — ^The lower Tapajoz River is the center of another cul-
ture type. Evidence was meager until the summer of 1922 when a
cloudburst washed out the streets of Santarem and uncovered stone tools
and a great quantity of pottery. Much was saved through the efforts
of NimuendajtJL, and a subsequent survey by him has made it possible
to outline the boundaries of the complex. It extends up the Tapajoz
to Aramanahy and is represented by numerous inland sites on the right
bank. On the left, there is a site at Boim. To the east, remains are
common as far as Taperinha and scattered to the eastern limit at Bocca
de Coaty on the Jaraucu River, a tributary of the lower Xingii. The
western limit is Serra de Parintins and there are numerous sites on
both banks of the Arapiuns River, a tributary entering the Tapajoz
Vol. 3] ARCHEOLOGY OF THE AMAZON BASIN— MEGGERS 163
northwest of Santarem, and in the region of Lago Grande de Villa
Franca. North of the Amazon there are some sites around Monte
Alegre, but Nimuendaju found nothing between here and Obidos
(Palmatary, 1939, pp. 4-5).
Ceramics. — The pottery of this area is perhaps the most remarkable in
the Amazon Valley. The paste is light gray in cross section and light
tan on the surface. Santarem pottery is notable for its unusual shapes
and profusion of modeled bird and animal ornament (fig. 17). Many
vessels show traces of red paint and some of a white slip. Among the
principal forms are : ( 1 ) A six-lobed vessel resting on a flaring annular
base or small caryatid. The neck is tall and narrow and flares out in
one or more places to form a flange or series of flanges. At two opposite
sides of the body, the lobe is extended outward and upward and terminates
in a stylized bird head with the beak curved downward in a loop. Other
decoration consists of animals modeled in the round, geometrical relief
patterns, and lightly incised geometrical designs. (2) A bowl supported
on a caryatid with an hour-glass-shaped base. The bowl has a vertical
rim which is decorated with an incised pattern. At the widest diameter
modeled ornament is attached. (3) A bowl with almost vertical sides,
a flat bottom, and a concentric, or trough rim. The two edges of the
trough are connected at four regular intervals by a wide loop. (4) A
tall jar with a narrow base. The greatest diameter is about one-fourth
of the distance from the base and above this the sides slope inward to
the rim. The height is about 34 cm. (12)^ inches). There is little or
no relief and no incised decoration. (5) A jar with a globular body and
a short vertical neck with a wide mouth. The base is flat or slightly
pointed. Decoration is relief or incised. (6) Numerous small vessels
in four-lobed and other exotic shapes. (7) Effigy vessels in seated posi-
tions with globular bodies. Two illustrated by Palmatary (1939, figs.
3-4) are covered with painted geometrical figures in red and black on
a light-colored background. (8) Seated figurines (pi. 18, a, h). These
are hollow and larger on the average than those found at Mara j 6. The
top of the leg slopes downward toward the tip. The hands are placed at
the side, on the leg, or on the chest. Numerous anthropomorphic and
zoomorphic figures and heads are found which were part of the ornament
of vessels. These are generally small and solid. Anthropomorphic heads,
whether figurines or part of the applied decoration of vessels, show
various conventional traits : a headdress resembling a diadem, an oblong
nose, and ears indicated by a double prominence or with the lobe pierced
for the insertion of an ornament. The eyes are commonly coffee-bean
or a horizontal ribbon of clay, although there are numerous other types
(Palmatary, 1939). Zoomorphic heads are abundant and represent a
great variety of animals and birds. Some of the most common of these
appear to have been conventionalized and conform rigidly to the con-
164
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS
[B.A.E. Bull. 143
Figure 17. — Santarem pottery. (After Palmatary, 1939, figs. 2 and 7.)
vention in modeling and decoration. The jaguar has a wide-open mouth,
the agouti has its front paws drawn up under the chin, birds have down-
curved beaks, etc. Ahnost all have the round-rimmed protuberant type
of eye.
Vol. 3] ARCHEOLOGY OF THE AMAZON BASIN— MEGGERS 165
Burials. — In spite of a diligent search, no burials have been discovered
in this area. The explanation probably lies in the method of disposing
of the dead which was described by Heriarte in the 17th century
(Nordenskiold, 1930 a). The body was left exposed until the flesh had
decayed away. The bones were then pulverized and the powder mixed
with chicha, which was drunk.
THE MIDDLE AMAZON
Miracanguera. — Miracanguera extends about 5 miles (8 km.) along
the north bank of the Amazon opposite the mouth of the Madeira River.
According to Nimuendaju, it has been ravaged by flood waters. Penna,
writing in 1877, reported that most of the clay objects were found isolated
from each other. The material is a fine clay slightly reddish-gray in
color. It contains no sand. A white slip was used and there are traces
of red paint. Some of the remains indicate a high degree of development
of the ceramic art, but were too fragmentary for description. Penna's
conclusion was that the ceramics of this area were inferior to those from
Santa rem and the lower Amazon.
A funerary urn from Itacoatiara, just down the river, is illustrated
by Netto (1885, Est. VA). The round bottom rests on a short pedestal.
The sides slope inward slightly at the neck and then flare out to the
rim. A bowlike cover fits perfectly over the top. The exterior is covered
with a white slip. On one side of the neck is an anthropomorphic face
with the features in low relief.
Manaos. — The city of Manaos is located on the north bank of the
Amazon near the mouth of the Rio Negro, about 900 miles (1,440 km.)
above Belem. Although it has been known as an archeological site since
the end of the last century, we still have to rely largely on the descriptions
of early travelers for information. There are a few articles in museums
but these are accompanied b}' no information about their source.
The funerary urns were buried just below ground level. Steere (1927,
p. 25) visited Manaos in 1870 and "on the parade ground of the Brazilian
troops stationed there, I saw the rims of several burial urns which were
being worn down by the bare feet of the soldiers." Marcoy (quoted
by Metraux, 1930 a, p. 174) describes the urns:
These vessels, made of a coarse paste of an obscure red-brown color, are at the
level of the ground. Their height varies from 70 cm. (26^ in.) to 1 m. (3 ft., 3 in.) ;
the diameter of the mouth is about 40 cm. (IS^/^ in.). Crude designs, lozanges,
zig-zags, chevrons, billets are painted in black on their sides. Some have a cover, but
the majority are open and empty.
Metraux has described the collection at the Musee du Trocadero in
Paris. Only one piece is intact, a bowl on a flaring annular base. The
decoration is in low relief. There are many fragments including a rim
sherd with a flat vertical handle ornamented with lines ending in volutes.
166 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
The color of the clay is rose-gray. There are numerous heads of birds
and animals that were used as ornament on vessels.
Teflfe. — Pottery discovered at the mouth of the Teffe River shows
similarities both with Santarem and with Marajo. The extension of the
eyebrows to form the nose so common on Marajo occurs here. The
zoomorphic heads are similar to those from Santarem, and there are other
striking resemblances between the pottery of the two areas.
Japura. — Farther west, above Macupury on the Japura River, a burial
urn containing badly-preserved bones was discovered. It is 42 cm. (1654
in.) tall and 37.5 cm. (14^ in.) at the largest diameter. The domelike
cover is 23 cm. (9 in.) in diameter and fits the mouth of the vessel exactly.
The features of the anthropomorphic face on the neck are in relief and are
enclosed by an incised line which runs across the forehead and perpendicu-
larly down the sides, ending in a relief volute on each side below the level
of the mouth. The urn is covered with a white slip and decorated at the
largest diameter with a red band 6 cm. (2^ in.) wide.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
For bibliographic references, see page 151.
THE TAPIRAPE
By Charles Wagley and Eduardo Galvao
INTRODUCTION
Isolated from other Tupi-Guarani-speaking people, the Tapirape live
in Central Brazil, west of the Araguaya River and north of the Tapirape
River, a western tributary flowing into the Araguaya near the northern
tip of the Island of Bananal (lat. 2° S., long. 52° W.). According to
tradition, the Tapirape lived for a time on the banks of the Araguaya and
Javahe Rivers with the Carajd. They quarreled, and the Tapirape moved
west to their present territory (map 1, No. 1; see Volume 1, map 7).
At the beginning of last century, five Tapirape villages formed a line
stretching northward into Cayapo country beginning at a point a few
miles back from the Tapirape River about 1 50 miles from its mouth. The
Tapirape have always been at war with the Cayapo, except for a brief
period. Each of these villages contained at least 200 individuals with a
total Tapirape population of about 1,000. Since 1900, however, there
has been a terrific reduction of Tapirape population.
In 1939, there was only one remaining Tapirape village situated about
20 miles north of the Tapirape River with a total population of 147 people.
This decline in population is basically due to disease (smallpox, respira-
torial diseases, etc.) acquired either directly from Neo-Brazilians or from
the Carajd, who are continually in contact with Neo-Brazilians. Tapirape
groups have been also m.assacred on several occasions by both the Carajd
and Cayapo.
The Tapirape have had but few contacts, however, with Neo-Brazilians. Except
for the demoralizing effect of depopulation, their culture has been little modified.
Although stories are told of Neo-Brazilian hunters visiting the Tapirape in 1909,
the first registered contact with them was in 1912. During that year, Senor Manda-
curu, leading an expedition of the Brazilian Indian Protection Service, visited the
village nearest the Tapirape River. In 1914, the Dominican priests visited the
Tapirape. From that date on, the Dominicans returned each year or so to a camp
on the Tapirape River for 3 or 4 days at a time and were met by the Tapirape, to
whom they distributed trade goods. About 1934, a Protestant missionary, Frederick
Kiegel, made several trips, staying 2 or 3 months in a Tapirape village. In 1935,
the first trained ethnologist, Dr. Herbert Baldus, resided several months with the
Tapirape, and in 1939^10, Wagley spent 12 months with them making the study
on which this article is based.
167
168 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
CULTURE
SUBSISTENCE ACTIVITIES
The region inhabited by the Tapirape is one of dense tropical forest;
yet near the Tapirape River and parallel to its small tributaries, there are
great strips of semiarid savanna country characterized by scrub growth
and groups of buriti palms. These plains are flooded during the excessive
rains from October to April, and they are arid during the latter part of the
dry season (May through September).
Farming. — The Tapirape make great clearings in the forest for their
villages, traveling occasionally to the savanna country for hunting. Their
large gardens guarantee them an economy of abundance. They plant sev-
eral varieties of both sweet and poisonous manioc, four varieties of maize,
pumpkins, beans, peppers, cara (Dioscorea sp.) and yams, peanuts,
squash, several varieties of bananas and beans, cotton, and papaya.
Each year, from June to September, the men clear away the forest for
[heir gardens. Clearing is frequently done individually ; frequently also
it is done cooperatively by the men's ceremonial moiety groups in a work
festival (apaciru). When communally prepared, the large clearings are
afterward divided into individual garden lots. Gardens are, thus, gener-
ally individual property; now and again, however, a younger man plants
together with an older man (his father-in-law) or a close relative. When
clearing is done by apaciru, plots are allocated for ceremonial moiety
leaders, who use the produce during the harvest feast (kao) at the end
of the rainy season. Vegetation and tree trunks, cut down during the
dry season and left to dry, are burned in September, Just after the first
rains of October, planting is begun. All crops are planted without order
or division within the garden plot, and weeds are never cleared away as
the garden grows. All gardening is done by men except the planting and
harvesting of peanuts and cotton, which is done entirely by women.
Harvest takes place as the various crops ripen. Maize planted in late
October or early November ripens in January ; in April and May squash,
cara, beans, etc. begin to ripen. Manioc is harvested as needed throughout
the year. All food from the gardens is said to belong to the wife once it
is brought into the house.
Garden plots are planted for 2 years and then abandoned. The second
year only manioc is generally planted in the plot. Yet each year a new
plot is cleared from virgin forest and thus each gardener has generally
two current garden plots — one newly cleared and a second-year plot planted
with manioc. The lack of virgin forest on high ground for garden clear-
ings within accessible distance to the village, as well as the fear of the
spirits of recent dead, force the Tapirape to move their village site each
4 or 5 years to a new site.
Manioc is by far the most important Tapirape crop, as manioc flour is
the basis of their diet. Different from other Tupi groups, however, the
Vol. 3] THE TAPIRAPE— WAGLBY AND GALVAO 169
Tapirape do not use the tipiti (the long woven tube in which the water is
squeezed from poisonous manioc) , but squeeze poisonous manioc with their
hands. The pulp is then spread out on a platform in the sun to be thor-
oughly dried. The flour is toasted in a clay pot over a very hot fire.
Wild foods. — Meat is a definite luxury to the agricultural Tapirape.
Monkeys, armadillos, forest fowls, cuati (Nasua sp.), and both kinds of
peccary (Tayassus tajacii and T. pecari) are occasionally killed in
the forest at any time during the year. The hunting and fishing season,
however, is from June through October, when the savanna country is dry.
The savannas are extraordinarily rich with game. Plains deer, wild pigs,
peccary, and wild duck, and geese near the drying swamps are plentiful.
Fish are shot with the bow and arrow and stupefied with timbo
(Paullinea pinnata or Serjania sp.) in the almost dry streams and lakes.
The village is almost deserted in September and October, after garden
sites have been cleared and before planting. Men, women, and children
move out to the plains country near the Tapirape River and set up a
temporary camp. They collect turtle eggs and kill turtles in the river.
They gather piqui fruit (Caryocar vellosum), andiroba {Carapa guya-
nensis) , and other wild fruits, and, from October through November, they
find wild honey both on the savanna and in the forest.
Hunting is done with the bow and arrow, but a club is used to finish
the kill, especially wild pigs or jaguars.
HOUSES AND VILLAGES
The houses of a Tapirape village form an oval around a large ceremonial
men's house (takana), which is forbidden to the women. Both the large
men's house, approximately 20 by 65 feet (6 by 20 m.), and the residential
houses, averaging 13 by 33 feet (4 by 10 m.), have a quadrangular floor
plan with arched roofs made by bending flexible poles and tying them
together over a roof beam (pi. 19, bottom, lejt). The walls and the roof
are covered with leaves of buriti palm and wild banana.
In the surviving village, called Tampitawa, there were nine residential
houses, each housing from four to eight simple families. Each family
occupies a determined sector of the house where they cook, keep their
belongings, and hang their sleeping hammocks. Household utensils, such
as baskets, pots, hammocks, and gourds, are owned by the women of each
simple family. Houses, though built by men, are said to be the property
of the women of the house. The house frame is constructed cooperatively
by all the men of the house. Each man covers the portion to be used by
his wife and children.
Ideally, residence is matrilocal, and the house is inhabited by a group
of closely related women and their husbands. The household leader is
generally the husband of the oldest woman of the group (see p. 172).
Owing perhaps to great depopulation and the accumulation of refugees
170 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
from many villages in the one village, many combinations of relatives now
form residential groups.
DRESS AND ORNAMENTS
Both sexes are nude. Men tie the prepuce over the glans penis with a
palm fiber. Both men and women pull out pubic, axillary, and all facial
hair. Even eyebrows are considered ugly. Men wear cotton string liga-
tures around their legs, just below the knee. Men, and sometimes women,
wear large cotton wrist bands crocheted directly on to their arms. Young
boys and girls sometimes wear similar ornaments on their ankles; these
ornaments are painted with a thick coat of red urucii dye and have round
cuffs, often 2 to 3 inches (5 to 7.5 cm.) wide. Necklaces of beads given
by Neo-Brazilians are highly valued and used almost to excess. Men
paint their feet and the calves of their legs red with urucii ; both men and
women trace a multitude of patterns on their body with black genipa dye.
Men have their lower lip pierced and wear a small wooden lip plug.
Two years or so after women have begun sexual life, patterns in the form
of a three-quarter moon are made on their faces by scarification with a paca
{Cuniculus paca) tooth knife. Charcoal and plant juices are rubbed into
the wounds to leave dark blue designs.
TRANSPORTATION
The Tapirape do not have canoes. All cargoes are carried by the men
in a carrying knapsack made from buriti-palm fibers strapped to their
backs.
MANUFACTURES
Weaving. — Hammocks are made by women from native cotton spun on
wooden spindles. The technique used is the simple twine weaving used
by the Tupinamba and other Tupi groups.
Ceramics. — ^At present, the art of ceramics is declining. Pottery is
usually for cooking, and is made by women. Sometimes it bears incised
geometrical decorations.
Gourds. — Gourds are decorated with geometric incisions.
Basketry. — ^The most highly developed basketry techniques among the
Tapirape are woven and twilled. Two types of baskets are flexible and
nonflexible ones; both are of buriti fiber. They generally have a quad-
rangular base and a narrow, round top, and are used mostly to store
manioc or maize flour. Flat, round baskets are used as cotton containers
or flour sifters. They are usually ornamented with motifs originating in
the weave itself; frequently the finished basket is smeared with black
genipa and odd strands are scraped off, giving a negative decorative effect.
Plate 19. — Tapirape ceremonies and house construction. Top, left: Youth in
preparation for puberty ceremony. The large, heavy diadem of macaw feathers
will be supportei by the lock of hair wrapped in cotton cord. Top, right:
Shaman wearing dangerous ceremonial headdress during Thunder ceremony.
He is intoxicated by tobacco and in a trance state. Bottom, left: Construction
of men's house. Bottom, right: Dance masks representing the "Crying Spirit,"
one of many forest spirits who are said to come to stay for a time in the men's
ceremonial house. (Courtesy Charles Wagley.)
Vol. 3] THE TAPIRAPE— WAGLEY AND GALVAO 171
Weapons. — Bows have a circular cross section and average about 6 feet
(2 m.) in length. The arrows are of cane about 5 feet (1.6 m.) long with
heads of bone, hardwood, and the spur from the sting ray {Potamotyrgon
histrix) . They have brilliant feathers, sometimes the red and blue feathers
of the red macaw. Clubs are made of several polished hardwoods and are
sometimes decorated near the handles with woven strands of cane fibers.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
Three distinct social groupings are basic in Tapirape social organization :
men's ceremonial moieties, feast societies, and the kinship groups.
Ceremonial moieties. — All Tapirape men belong to one of the patri-
lineal ceremonial moieties. Each of these moieties is further divided
into three age grades. There are consequently two groups of youths
(those up to 15 years of age) ; two groups of men of warrior age (15 to
40 years) ; and two groups of older men (40 to 60 years). Each group
bears the name of a bird, the word "wira" (bird) being the generic name
for the group. These age groups (Baldus, 1937, p. 96, calls them "work
groups") function as units in hunting and in clearing garden sites at the
cooperative work festival; parallel groups also dance against each other
in various ceremonials and reciprocally feast each other. Each moiety
owns half of the men's house, and its portion is subdivided into sections
owned by the three age grades. The warrior age group of each moiety
has a "walking leader" for hunting excursions and communal work, and a
"singing leader" for ceremonials. As a man becomes elderly, he entirely
drops out of the "bird" groups and is no longer affiliated, as he cannot
take part in their economic and ceremonial activities. At present, the
Tapirape are so reduced in number that, lacking older men, younger men
pass prematurely into the older men's age grade in order to retain the
necessary balance for ceremonials.
Feast groups. — Both men and women are divided into eight feasting
groups called tataupawa (literally, "fire all to eat") Men belong to their
fathers' feast group and women to their mothers'. Feast groups are not
only nonexogamic, but people prefer to marry within their own group so
that husband and wife may attend feasts together. These groups carry
the names of the mythological heads of the original eight households of
the first Tapirape village. They unite at various times throughout the
year for ceremonial meals. The feasts take place at traditional spots in
the village plaza, at times when there is an abundance of honey, maize, or
meat from the hunt. Each member brings his contribution. BaJdus (1937,
p. 88) calls these "eating groups," and emphasizes that they are consumers'
groups providing a means of distributing food when more is available than
a family can eat. Today only six groups meet for feasts, two being extinct
for lack of members.
653333—47—14
172 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
Kinship. — Kinship is more important in furthering solidarity among
the Tapirape than either the moieties or the feast groups. Tapirape kin-
ship is bilateral, its chief principle being that all cousins, whether cross-
or parallel-cousins, no matter how distant, are considered brothers and
sisters. Children of people calling each other siblings are also called
siblings. Mother's sisters are called mother, and father's brothers, father.
Mother's brothers and father's sisters are distinguished by special terms.
Similarly, a man's brothers' children are considered his sons and daughters,
and a woman's sisters' children are her children. Children of a man's
sisters or a woman's brothers are given special terms.
The wide inclusiveness of kinship affiliation makes it possible for an
individual to call the majority of his fellow villagers — and in former days
many people in other villages — by terms of close relationship.
An older man of some prestige gathers around him by adoption as many
"daughters" or as many of his wife's "daughters" as possible. By the
marriage of these "daughters," he attracts a group of younger men within
his household who contribute constantly to his larder through the hunt and
garden activities. At present, only three of the nine houses in the village
were formed in this way, but reduced numbers, we were told, forced
various combinations of relatives to share a household.
LIFE CYCLE
Childbirth. — Although aware that pregnancy is brought about by
sexual intercourse, the Tapirape believe that conception takes place when a
shaman, serving as intermediary, brings a "child spirit" to the woman.
Thunder, night, monkeys, wild pigs, and various fish and insects are
supposed to contain child spirits.
When the woman is certain that she is pregnant, she tells her husband.
They both paint their bodies with genipa and cover their hair with urucu.
During the first few days of pregnancy, no restraints are imposed upon the
child's parents, but as birth approaches, all sexual contact must cease.
All men who have sexual relations with a woman during her pregnancy
are considered fathers of the future child, together with the real father.
At childbirth the woman is assisted by her mother and sister and by
two male relatives. The husband retires to his hammock and is forbidden
to partake of any liquid refreshment.
Infanticide is practiced because it is considered bad to have more than
three children, or two children of the same sex. The fourth child, or
third of the same sex, of one mother is buried in a hole dug inside the
residence for the afterbirth.
On the day after birth, a male child has his lower lip perforated. Until
the child is weaned, the parents must refrain from sexual relations and
must not eat salt, sugar, honey, or the meat of various animals and forest
fowls. Both boys and girls also are restricted in their meat diet. A son
Vol. 3] THE TAPIR APE— WAGLEY AND GALVAO 173
and sometimes a daughter of important people may be treated as a favorite
child, being given special attention and education and being highly decor-
ated during various ceremonies in which such children are central figures.
Treatment as a "favorite child" brings prestige throughout one's whole life.
Puberty. — When a boy is about 12 years old, he ties his prepuce over
the glans penis. His hair is cropped close to his head, and his entire body
is painted black with genipa. He substitutes a short mother-of-pearl lip
plug for the long bone one worn by young boys. During this time, the
boy must sleep in the men's house. His arms and legs are scratched from
time to time deep enough to draw blood, so that he will grow strong.
When he is about 14 years old, his hair is allowed to grow and is tied
at the nape of his neck. His hair is not cut for a year or two in preparation
lor his puberty ceremony, which is considered the most important event
in a man's life. On the appointed day, the boy is richly ornamented, the
main ornament being a large diadem principally of red macaw feathers
set in a heavy block of wood (pi. 19, top, left). This diadem is supported
by the hair and weighs well over 10 pounds. For 24 hours the boy is
forced to dance continually under the weight of excessive decoration to
prove his endurance.
During a girl's first three menstrual cycles, a geometric pattern is traced
with genipa on her body. During this time, she must refrain from sexual
relations. There is no special puberty ceremony for girls. Girls are
usually already married at puberty, especially at present with the lack of
women.
Marriage. — Formerly there was some intervillage antagonism, and
people preferred to marry within their own village. Despite such antag-
onism and the fact that villages were 2 to 3 days' walk apart, considerable
intervillage visiting occurred, and genealogies show that intervillage mar-
riage was not rare. Today, with refugees from all villages in the one
village, antagonisms and local village patriotism exist only in the memory
of older people.
Men marry immediately after the initiation rites, and the women, at
least in modern times, at any time after the age of 7 or 8 years. People do
not marry cousins who are called "brother" and "sister" of close connec-
tion, but marriage with those of distant relationship is not infrequent.
Monogamy is the absolute rule.
Because the population has declined and men outnumber women, marriage
rules have been somewhat altered. All women have husbands, and there
are now about 10 young men waiting for 7- or 8-year old girls. There are
also marriages between men and very young pre-adolescent girls; these
are brought about because the men are greatly dependent on the women's
work. In such cases, the husband goes to live in his wife's house, where
his mother-in-law helps the girl work for him.
174 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS IB.A.E. Bull. 143
Until the first child is born, marriage bonds are rather weak, but hence-
forth the marriage is comparatively stable. There are, however, frequent
cases of adultery, and a guilty woman who is found out is thrashed by her
husband. When a marriage is dissolved, the man leaves the house, which
is considered the wife's property, although built by him.
Upon a man's death, his widow remains in the house. After about 2
months of free sexual relations, she chooses a new husband.
Death. — The Tapirape believe that death is brought about by sorcery
and never by natural causes. Frequently, when the relatives of the
deceased enjoyed sufficient prestige, they kill the shaman whom they
suspect.
As soon as it is certain that the sick man will die, mourning begins in
the form of a wailing dirge by both men and women. The men dance
around the hammock of the dying or dead man, while the women remain
seated on the ground. Burial takes place on the day after death. The
corpse is stretched out on the hammock. Its feet and head are decorated
with urucu dye, and its face is painted black with genipa. The grave is
dug in the dead man's house under the place where his hammock was
usually hung. The body is buried in the hammock, which is set up in the
grave between two poles. All contact with the earth is avoided. Personal
possessions of the deceased are buried with him, except that all feather
ornaments and bows and arrows are burned.
Five days after the funeral, the relatives walk in file to the ceremonial
hut, where they leave the spirit of the dead man. The wailing goes on for
many days, sometimes months, and always takes place at sunset. Close-
cropped hair is a token of mourning for both sexes.
ESTHETIC AND RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Art. — Obvious esthetic pleasure is derived from skillfully done basket-
work; a good workman will destroy a basket which is not turning out
well, even though it would serve as a receptacle. Great use is made of
highly colored feathers; feathers are both tied and stuck with rosin and
wax on to the object to be decorated. Elaborate geometric designs are
painted on children's bodies with genipa. The incise work on gourds is
also especially striking.
Musical instruments. — Gourd rattles are frequently used to keep time
to singing. No sacred powers are attributed to rattles. During the
shamanistic ceremony (p, 177), a bamboo trunk is pounded against the
ground in time to the music.
Music. — By far the most important Tapirape pastime is singing, A man
with a good voice and a large repertoire of songs is much admired by the
community. All ceremonies are, basically, singing festivals. Each cere-
mony during the year has a large set of specific songs : those to be sung
by the shaman during the shamanistic "battle with Thunder" (p, 177) ;
Vol. 3] THE TAPIRAPE— WAGLEY AND GALVAO 175
those for group singing during the harvest ceremonies and the ceremony
of kawi (p. 176) ; those for the masked dancers during the dry season;
and a very large number of songs specifically for the "Big Sing"
(monikaho) during the latter part of the rainy season. During this
period (approximately March through April), singing takes place
throughout each night from sundown to sunrise. On these occasions,
the singing leader and the men of one of the moieties introduce the verse
of eacli song and the refrain is then taken up by the men of the other
moiety and the women of the tribe. Women sing in a higher key than the
men and, generally, a phrase behind the men. The songs of the masked
dancers, each representing a supernatural being, differ stylistically from
those used on other occasions in being sung in a falsetto tone, in a manner
similar to that of the neighboring Carajd. Many such songs have been
admittedly learned from the Carajd.
Dancing. — Both men and women dance as they sing. In general, the
Tapirape dance bending slightly forward, stamping out the time of the
music with one foot. Dancing differs greatly, however, according to the
occasion. During the harvest ceremonies, men dance in a line, side by
side, each man's wife dancing directly behind him. During the group
singing of the "Big Sing," the men dance in moiety groups facing each
other, and women dance behind the moiety group of their husbands. On
one occasion during this time, men dance with women, side by side, with
a curious skipping step.
Games. — Men's moieties run foot races against each other after the
communal work festival (p. 168) ; they race in a straight line across the
village plaza. Wrestling takes place at one wet-season ceremony, and,
now and again, throughout the year as sport. The Tapirape explain,
however, that the Carajd are better wrestlers and that it is more properly
a Carajd sport. In wrestling, opponents stand face to face, grasping each
other about the neck, and attempt to force or to trip the other to the
ground. During one festival, men, one from each moiety at a time,
compete by throwing blunt-headed spears at each other. Gambling games
are unknown.
Stimulants. — Native tobacco, though used for leisure-time smoking, is
principally a stimulant and medicine. A Tapirape will not travel without
a supply of tobacco to blow smoke over his tired body at the end of the
day, in order to take out soreness and tiredness. Tobacco is necessary
to shamans in all their activities. They blow tobacco smoke over the
patient in curing (p. 177), and, to induce dreams and a trance, they
swallow large gulps of smoke until they become intoxicated and nauseated.
When people have seen ghosts, shamans fumigate them with tobacco
smoke, in order to drive away the ghost's influence. Shamans fumigate
new maize, the first honey of the season and, sometimes, fresh meat to
drive out possible supernatural danger. This native tobacco is smoked
176 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
by laymen in short tubular wooden or clay pipes and by shamans, in
tubular clay pipes, sometimes 12 inches (30 cm.) long.
The Tapir ape do not routinely plant tobacco as other crops. Occa-
sionally, it is transplanted from scattered patches around the gardens and
village to near the houses or gardens, but usually the patches merely seed
themselves. A person who discovers a new patch, hastily surrounds it
with a low fence to show his ownership of it.
No alcoholic beverages are known to the Tapirape. Beverages made
from manioc and maize are prepared as a food and are not allowed to
ferment.
RELIGION
Tapirape religion is based on the belief in two kinds of supernatural
beings — disembodied souls of the dead, and malignant forest spirits of
many kinds — both designated by one generic term, ancunga (spirit or
shadow).
The ancunga iiinwera, human spirits or ghosts (aria or anhanga among
the Tupinamha), live in abandoned villages and frequently come near to
the villages of the living "because they are cold" and try to warm them-
selves close to the houses. The Tapirape are afraid of meeting them and
try not to go out at night, when the ghosts most frequently appear.
Souls of the dead continue to live for an undetermined period of time,
then die and are transformed into animals. Anyone who hears the croak
of a kururii frog {Pipa pipa) knows that it is the soul of a leader. A
pigeon is the soul of a common man ; a paca, that of a woman. The souls
of the shamans have a different fate ; they go to join Thunder.
In addition to the souls of the dead, there is a large number of malig-
nant beings, also called ancunga, who dwell in the forest. They are very
dangerous and kill as many Tapirape as they find. Ware, a legendary
hero and a great shaman, had the distinction of killing many ancunga,
among whom were the awaku anka, by setting their long coarse hair on
fire. The mumpianka were beings who killed men in order to drink their
blood. Some of these forest spirits have become domesticated by the
Tapirape, thanks to the powers of their shamans. Several times the
Tapirape men dance with masks representing the visiting spirits (pi. 19,
bottom, right).
Rites. — The real ceremonial season is the rainy season, when the people
are thrown together because they can neither farm nor hunt. Mask
dances celebrate the visits of the various spirits (ancunga) to the men's
house during the dry season. At the end of the rainy season the harvest
ceremonial (kao) and the ceremony of kawi (a souplike beverage made
of sweet manioc or of maize) are held.
In the first few months of the rainy season, when the maize crop is
threatened by electrical storms and by the first heavy rains, the shamans
Vol. 3] THE TAPIRAPE— WAGLEY AND GALVAO 177
are called upon to fight Thunder. This, the important Tapirape ceremony,
lasts for 4 days, and is the high point of shamanistic activity.
Kanawana, the Thunder, lives on distant Maratawa surrounded by
the souls of dead shamans and by the topii (probably equivalent to the
Tupinamha word, "tupan"), small anthropomorphic beings whose bodies
are covered with white hair.
The topii travel through space in their canoes (half gourds), the sound
of which produces the noise of the storm. The arrows which the topi
shoot cause lightning. During the ceremony, the shamans, completely
intoxicated by the tobacco and stimulated by the unceasing dancing and
singing, fall into a trance (pi. 19, top, right) during which they travel
to Thunder's house in order to fight him. Thunder sets the topii against
the shamans, who, wounded by the arrows of "Thunder's creatures,"
fall into unconsciousness.
SHAMANISM
The Tapirape can visualize the supernatural world through the reports
of the dreams of their shamans, whose power grows in proportion to
their ability to dream. A dream is a voyage, during which the soul frees
itself of the body and travels through space. In these dreams the shamans
travel to regions which are entirely unknown to the living, and in general
are inhabited by spirits. With their powers, the shamans succeed in
laming some of the spirits, who then become their familiar spirits. The
power and prestige of the shaman (pance) depend on the number of
his familiar spirits.
The Tapirape speak of battles between shamans wherein each calls out
his familiar spirits against the other while dreaming. More often, a
shaman sets his familiar spirits upon laymen and kills them. A shaman
may also kill his victim during a dream by throwing a mahgnant object,
usually a piece of bone or a worm, into his body.
The victims of sorcery appeal to friendly shamans, who attempt to
cure them by extracting the malignant object by suction, massage, and
blowing tobacco. When many deaths occur simultaneously and the
Tapirape suspect a certain shaman of having caused them, they do not
hesitate to kill him. One man recalled that during his lifetime 10 shamans
suspected of sorcery had been killed. He himself had killed a shaman
whom he suspected of having killed his brother. In spite of the constant
suspicion surrounding them, the shamans do not employ mechanical tech-
niques or sympathetic magic in sorcery.
The shamans make great use of tobacco, which is essential for healing
and dreaming. They smoke it in large tubular clay pipes. Cures usually
take place at dusk. The shaman squats by the patient's hammock and
smokes for a long time, becoming intoxicated and blowing the smoke
from the pipe over the patient's body. He then massages the patient,
178 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
rubbing toward the extremities of his body. If he fails to extract the
malignant object in this fashion, he sucks it out, swallows it, then vomits
it up.
At one time, during an epidemic of fever, a shaman used a different
method. He prepared a mixture of honey and water, and, after much
smoking, spew^ed it out over the patients and on the houses where there
were sick people.
Besides healing, the shamans must protect the people against dangerous
spirits (ancunga) ; they call forth "children's spirits" without which there
can be no conception ; they prevent wild animals from harming the Tapi-
rape during great hunting or fishing expeditions ; and they increase the
number of peccaries in the woods. It is also believed that they divine
the future in their dreams.
The prestige of shamans is such among the Tapirape that almost all
leaders of communities as well as of ceremonial moiety groups and house-
hold heads are shamans. As shamans receive payment for successful
cures, they accumulate many possessions which they redistribute at a
yearly ceremonial. Liberality is essential to prestige in this society where
avarice is particularly despised.
MYTHOLOGY
Tapirape myths fall into two categories: legends telling of the deeds
of ancestral heroes, and tales of animals. In the latter, the tortoise
(Testudo tabulata) is noted for his shrewdness in his dealings with the
other animals of the jungle. These stories follow the general Tupi
pattern.
Among the various Tapirape heroes are Apuwenonu and Petura. The
former descended from heaven and lived with the Tapirape. He taught
them to plant and harvest cotton, manioc, and maize. When he was old,
Apuwenonu returned to heaven and changed himself into a star,
Petura stole fire from the buzzards and brought light to the Tapirape,
who until then had not seen day. It is also told of Petura that he stole
hatchets and knives from the emu and gave them to the Tapirape.
Txawanamii is famous for a series of songs which tell of his adventures
among the mythical ampiiawa, enemies of the Tapirape, who made him
die a lingering death. Wancina, a great shaman, had his whole house,
including his family and belongings, transported to heaven by Kanawana,
the Thunder. Ware was another shaman who killed many dangerous
forest spirits.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Baldus, 1935, 1937; Bigorre, 1916, 1917; Metraux, 1927; Wagley, 1940 a, 1940 b,
1943 b.
THE CARAjAi
By William Lipkind
TRIBAL DIVISIONS AND TERRITORY
The Caraja are a river people who since pre-Columbian times have held
as the central portion of their territory the inland Island of Bananal, which
is formed by the great fork of the Araguaya River (lat. 8°-17° S., long.
48°-52° W., map 1, No. 1; see Volume 1, map 7). They must be re-
garded as an independent linguistic family for the present ; their language
displays no convincing similarities to any other recorded South American
language.
The term "Caraja" is used to designate the entire people as well as
the largest of the three tribal divisions ; the other two are the Shambiod
and the Javahe. The Caraja proper have 20 villages on the western or
main branch of the Araguaya River, widely spread from Leopoldina south
of Bananal clear down to the end of the Island. The Shambiod, now
nearly extinct, have only two villages left, a little way below Conceicao.
The eight villages of the Javahe lie on the eastern or minor branch of
the Araguaya River and on the small streams within Bananal. The gen-
eral location and the relative sizes of the three groups have remained
the same since the earliest times.
The native names give some notion of intergroup attitudes. All three
groups regard themselves as a single people and use a name meaning
"we" to distinguish themselves from other tribes. The Caraja proper are
called the "great people" by the other two groups. The Shambiod are
the "companion people." The Javahe are called by a name which is used
generally to mean "Indian" and bears the pejorative connotation "back-
woodsman" or "hick." There is a possible analysis which makes it the
"old people" but, even if this etymology is correct, the word no longer has
that meaning.
Dialectical differences are slight and other differences not very great,
with the Shambiod occupying a middle position culturally between the
other two groups. This account is based on field work with the Carajd
proper and refers to the other groups only where they exhibit important
differences.
^ The present description of the Caraja is based on the author's field work during 1937, done
under the auspices of the Department of Anthropology, Columbia University.
179
180 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
ARCHEOLOGY
Large circular hollows in the ground are found at various points in
Carajd territory, always in the close vicinity of a stream. By tradition
these are ancient cemeteries ; of old, they say, people did not mourn at a
funeral but held a feast in the hollow. One of these hollows located on
the height above the river bank at Fontoura is 18 m. (about 58 ft.)
long, 15 m. (about 50 ft.) wide, and 1^ m. (5 ft.) deep at its center. The
mound forming the northern side was excavated, disclosing two lines of
burials with associated pottery, bone labrets, and beads.
The pottery is very similar to modern Carajd pottery and the labrets
are exactly like those now in the possession of the Carajd. The cemetery
cannot, however, definitely be identified as Carajd. The present-day
Carajd cemetery is different in location and ground plan. There is now
secondary urn burial, and in the first burial the bodies are laid at right
angles to the river rather than parallel as were those disclosed by the
excavation. Still, the remains show even less resemblance to the Ge and
Tupi peoples in the neighborhood. The question must be left open for
further archeological study.
HISTORY
Since the earliest times, the Carajd have been at war with their Ge and
Tupi neighbors. The sole exception is the Tapirape, with whom at one
time the Javahe maintained close and friendly relations. The Shambiod
were the first to come in contact with the Neo-Brazilians early in the 17th
century. Contact with the Carajd proper must have begun shortly after the
founding of Santa Anna by Bartholomeu Bueno in 1682. The Carajd are
on good terms with the Neo-Brazilians, trading skins and fish for clothing,
beads, knives, axes, guns, sugar, and salt.
Population. — According to the census made by the author in 1939, the
Carajd number 1,510, divided as follows: Carajd proper, 795; Javahe,
650 ; Shambiod, 65. These figures should be contrasted with Castelnau's
(1850-59) count in 1845 of 2,000 Shambiod in four villages, and his esti-
mate of a total of 100,000 Carajd, and with Krause's (1911) estimate of
10,000 Carajd in 1908.
CULTURE
SUBSISTENCE ACTIVITIES
Farming. — Clearings are made in the thick forest along the water-
courses. Gardens must be so located as to be accessible by canoe in the
dry season and yet not flooded in the rainy season. The scarcity of such
land results in some of the plots being several miles distant from the village.
Proximity to fishing grounds is generally held to be more important. The
work of clearing is begun in May at the beginning of the dry season. Maize
Vol. 3] THE CARAJA— LIPKIND 181
is planted in September, when the first rains come, and manioc shortly
after. There is little cultivation beyond weeding. The basic crop is
manioc, both the sweet and bitter varieties being cultivated, with maize
next in importance. Four varieties each of sweet and bitter manioc and
10 varieties of maize are cultivated. Other crops are: Five varieties of
potatoes, two varieties of cara, four varieties of watermelon, three varieties
of squash, four varieties of beans, and ten varieties of bananas, as well
as peanuts, urucu, tobacco, cotton, calabashes, sugarcane, yams, peppers,
pineapples, and papayas. Men do all the work with a little assistance in
harvesting and weeding from older women. The Javahe are more in-
dustrious farmers than the other Carajd, cultivating extensive plantations.
Collecting. — ^A large number of vegetable products are gathered for use
as food, medicine, and raw material for manufacture, but only a few are
of great importance. The babassu and the buriti palms, used for food and
textile materials, are among the most valuable. The taquara reed is
sought after for arrows. Turtle eggs are a significant item of food during
the dry season. Honey is indispensable for feasting.
Huntingf. — Although the Carajd are passionate hunters, very few of the
animals available in the region are eaten. Only the peccary is really sought
and constitutes a sizable item in the larder. The other animals that are
eaten — the cutia, coati, woodsdeer, monkey, iguana, and a few birds, such
as the mutum, jao, and jacu — are killed when encountered but are not
eaten by everyone. Peccaries are hunted in a communal drive, the most
favorable time being shortly after the beginning of the rainy season when
large droves are trapped on islands.
The chief purpose of hunting is to get feathers, and the most desirable
birds are the various parrots, herons, the male stork, and the flamingo.
The nesting of valuable birds is carefully watched, and the young are
stolen and tamed. Feathers stored in small baskets almost constitute a
currency, because they are readily negotiable at all times and maintain
a stable value.
The principal weapons are the bow and club. The bow, made of a
variety of woods but with a preference for juari when available, is round
in cross section and about 6 feet (2 m.) long. The arrow is preferably
of taquara reed and variously tipped with wood, animal bone, or fish bone.
Clubs are beautifully fashioned of heavy hardwood, decorated with delicate
carving, and are swung and thrown with equal skill. The lance is now
used only for ceremonial purposes.
Fishing. — Fish is the most important food supply. Trapping and drug-
ging fish with timbo is a communal affair ; individuals fish with the bow
and arrow. There is occasional night fishing, with spearing by torchlight.
The pirarucu is killed by harpoon. The hook and line is little used, and
apparently was borrowed recently from the Neo-Brazilians.
Food preparation. — Manioc is peeled, grated, squeezed out by hand,
and cooked into a soup. When the soup cools, it is masticated for a few
182
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS
[B.A.B. Bull. 143
minutes, then allowed to stand for a while. The resulting fermentation
is not allowed to continue long enough to produce an intoxicating drink.
This soup, along with a similar soup made of maize, is a daily staple.
Manioc and ground maize are also made into cakes, but this is a holiday
variation of diet rather than the staff of life as in other regions. The
standard methods of cooking meat, fish, and vegetables are boiling, roast-
ing on a spit, roasting on a grate, and roasting in the embers. Occasion-
ally, some vegetables are baked in hot sand. Maize is the only food that
is stored. On platform shelves at the top of their rainy-season houses, the
Javahe pile a supply of maize dried on the cob sufficient to last throughout
the dry season.
HOUSES AND VILLAGES
The permanent or rainy-season village is erected on a high bank over-
looking the river. One or two rows of houses face the river, and the men's
house, about 50 feet (15.2 m.) back, faces down river. All the space
between the men's house and the family houses is kept perfectly clean and
constitutes the dancing plaza of the village. The surrounding clearing
extends only a few yards in all directions. All neighboring forest which
must be traversed in hunting or gathering is threaded by well-marked
trails. A path leads down from the center of the village to the main port
where women, married men, and children bathe, and married men land
their canoes. Another path cuts diagonally down from tlie men's house
to the bachelor's port where the young men bathe and visitors to the
masked dances land their canoes.
The house is rectangular in ground plan with supported horizontal
ridge poles (fig. 18). Saplings are sunk into the ground at the sides and
Figure 18. — Carajd house frame. (Redrawn from Ehrenreich, 1891 b, fig. 3.)
bent over to the ridge pole at the top, where they are firmly tied with bast.
Then the whole structure is tightly thatched with successive overlapping
layers of palm frond tied to the ^aphngs (pi. 20,. top). The entrance is a
small rectangular opening at the bottom, through which one crawls after
Vol. 3]
THE CARAJA— LIPKIND
183
pushing aside a door of plaited palm. Every married woman in the family
cooks at her own fireplace, which consists of two lumps of hardened clay.
Mats used for sleeping and sitting are spread over the entire floor.
Wooden stools (fig. 19) may also be found. Bows, arrows, and rattles
Figure 19. — Carajd wooden stool. (Redrawn from Ehrenreich, 1891 b, fig. 13.)
are shoved into the wall thatch. Baskets, used for storing such things as
tobacco, urucu, and feathers, are hung by a string from the ridge poles.
Large baskets containing vegetables lie on the ground next to the thatch.
The dry-season house is identical in form but smaller and of flimsier
construction. Thatching is looser and the walls are thatched only about
halfway to the ground, the north and west sides often being left com-
pletely open. The dry-season village is generally constructed on a long
beach and, as the site grows dirty, is moved along the beach. The ground
plan of the dry-season village is identical with the rainy-season village.
DRESS AND ORNAMENTS
The most prominent facial decoration is a blue-black circular scarifica-
tion about an inch in diameter over each cheekbone. The ears of infants
are pierced and an ornament consisting of a small polished capybara tooth
with a feather attached is inserted. A common ear ornament for children
is a mother-of-pearl disk with a cut feather fringe set on a blackened thin
rod. In a perforation of their lower lips, men wear wood or bone labrets
of a variety of shapes (pi. 21 ; fig. 21, a), each assigned to a different age
grade; old men use simple wooden plugs.
Men wear their hair long, winding it round a plaited cotton rope red-
dened with urucu. Women wear their hair about shoulder length.
Armlets crocheted of cotton are worn at the wrists and just above the
elbow ; similar ornaments are worn just below the knee and at the ankle.
These are worn particularly by children and are supposed to aid growth.
184
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS
[B.A.E. Bull. 143
Young men wear large armlets almost 12 inches (30 cm.) long crocheted
of cotton with hanging fringes.
Women wear a bark-cloth girdle, which is wound round the body and
under the crotch and looped over, hanging down in front. Feather head-
dresses of a number of different designs are worn by men on festal occa-
sions. Men tie the prepuce with a firmly wound string and wear a string
belt.
Elaborately decorated woven belts with hanging ema feathers are worn
for wrestling matches. Bird down is glued on the shoulders, arms, and
legs. Body painting is very elaborate, and designs covering the entire
body are carefully executed with genipa. Urucii is spread generally, with
accents on the cheekbones, the nose, and the upper arm.
TRANSPORTATION
The Carajd manufacture elongated dugouts, neatly adapted to landing
and freeing their craft among the sandbanks.
MANUFACTURES
Bark cloth. — Bark cloth is made of Apeiba bast, soaked, beaten with
flat stones, and dried until it becomes very soft and white.
Figure 20. — Carajd manufactures, a-d, Pottery; e, wooden scoop. (Redrawn from
Ehrenreich, 1891 b, figs. 5 and 14.)
Vol. 3]
THE CARAJA— LIPKIND
185
Basketry. — The Carajd excel in the variety and solidity of their plait-
work, which includes burden baskets, strainers, shoulder bags, bottles,
elliptical feather cases, and boat-shaped containers for suspension. Twill-
ing and twining are the dominant techniques (pi. 22).
Textiles. — The Carajd produce some taffetalike fabrics, but in 1775
Pinto da Fonseca found them using cotton solely for fish nets and bow-
strings, so that he himself introduced a loom and taught the women how
to work it.
Featherwork. — In contrast to their Ge neighbors of Eastern Brazil, the
Carajd are outstanding for featherwork. They make wide-meshed and
close-meshed caps with feathers tied to the intersection of the interlaced
splints and arranged into rosettes, diadems of feathers stuck into radially
mounted cane tubes, and other types of ornaments (pi. 21).
Axes. — Stone axes figure in old Carajd petroglyphs and have been found
by many travelers in the area. They were used for adzing, chopping, and
warfare, and as chief's badges. Iron axes have rapidly replaced them.
FiGjRE 21. — Carajd manufactures, a, Labrets; b, comb; c, pipe. (Approximately ^
actual size.) (Redrawn from Ehrenreich, 1891 b, figs. 2, 9, and 4.)
186 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.B. Bull. 143
Weapons. — The Caraja use bows and arrows (pis. 20, bottom, left;
21, left and center), and their mythology indicates aboriginal use of the
spear thrower for hunting monkeys. Recently, they have used a spear
thrower of the upper Xingu River type for sport.
Pottery. — Pottery vessels include several forms of plain ware (fig. 20).
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION
The kinship structure may be described as double descent. Both lines
are important, the greater emphasis falling on the mother's line, and both
lines serve different functions. Village citizenship, adoption, and the
closest affectional ties are reckoned in the mother's line. Moiety member-
ship and the offices of chief, priest, and food-divider are patrilineally
inherited.
The fundamental unit of social organization is the village. Every
village has one or more iolo, children of chiefly line, designated by the
chief for preferential treatment by the members of the village. The chief
names the iolo who is to succeed him or, if he fails to do so, the village
makes the choice at his death. Girls of chiefly line are similarly chosen
for preferential treatment ; each of them is known as the "hidden woman."
There is some indication that women functioned as chiefs in former
times, but today there is no woman chief. The chief has no coercive
powers but directs the village by recognizing the will of the majority in
such matters as the selection of camp and garden sites and the announce-
ment of a move at change of season. His principal function is to act
as peacemaker, and people readily submit to his adjudication. Because
of the importance of religious ceremonials, the priest and the shaman
frequently exercise more authority than the chief. When all three offices
are vested in a single individual, his authority may be considerable, but
it is kept in check by the right of a discontented person to move at any
time to another village.
Within the village the important unit is the household. Residence
being matrilocal, a household. consists of sisters, their husbands, children,
and the husbands of grown daughters. Marriage is restricted to one's
own generation, the preferred mate being a cousin on the mother's side.
There is no sanction but ridicule against wrong marriages, and there
are many cases of cross-generational marriage. Marriage is predomi-
nantly monogamous, but a few instances of polygyny and one of poly-
andry were encountered. The avunculate is very important and involves
many social and especially ceremonial duties. Cooperation in the house-
hold is close and in the village fairly close. In addition, villages are
grouped together in ceremonial units, generally consisting of three or
four neighboring villages, which celebrate important feasts jointly. This
ceremonial unit acts as an insurance group when a village's crop fails
or its fish supplies grow scarce. Beyond this, the only intervillage ties
<^fe^
^%
Plate 20.— Caraja house and physical types. Top: House. (Courtesy Uni-
versity Museum, Philadelphia.) Bottom, left: Warriors. Bottom, right- Girls
(After Ehrenreich, 1891 b.)
Ah
Plate 22. — Caraja paddles, gourds, and basketry. (After Ehrenreich, 1891 b.
Vol. 3] THE CARAJA— LIPKIND 187
are the product of intermarriage and formal friendship. Intervillage
feuds are common and are restrained only by the religious community,
sanctuary being granted at all religious ceremonials.
ETIQUETTE
All dealings with visitors are conducted according to elaborate formal
patterns. The language is rich in formal appellations, exclamations, and
honorific phrases. The most remarkable feature is that women are per-
mitted to behave with perfect freedom, whereas men, until they become
fathers, behave with a shy and deferential modesty resembling but exceed-
ing that of the Victorian maiden. Normal relations between members
of the same village are formal and dignified; only in the men's house
or on fishing and hunting trips is the behavior of men relaxed enough
to permit horseplay and casual joking.
LIFE CYCLE
Childbirth and Childhood. — The child gets two sets of names, one
male and one female, as soon as the mother is known to be pregnant. These
are one's own names given by grandparents of both lines. Taboos in
regard to diet and behavior are required of both parents before and after
birth. There is a well-developed couvade based on the notion of an
intimate connection between the infant and its father. Babies are nursed
until they turn to other food of their own volition; sometimes ridicule
is used as a sanction against particularly recalcitrant children. No inter-
course is allowed during the period of lactation. Babies are carried on
the hip, and sleep with the mother until weaning, when they are paired
off with other children or with a grandparent. The girl child wears
no clothing until weaned and then receives a fringed belt.
Puberty and initiations. — At menstruation, a girl's cheeks are scari-
fied and she assumes the girdle.
A boy passes through a first initiation at about the age of 8 or 9,
when his lower lip is pierced and a small bone labret inserted. A couple
of years later, he passes through a second initiation, when his hair is
cut short to a tonsure, his entire body is stained black with genipa, and
he assumes the penis cord. When his hair has grown out to shoulder
length, it is put up in a braid, and he attains full status as a young man.
The next change of status for both boys and girls occurs at marriage,
when, for the first time, they take on the responsibilities of regular work.
Teknonymy is a matter of pride and follows the birth of the first child.
The name is retained permanently thereafter, even though the child should
die. At about 45 both parents discard their ornaments and accept the
status of old age. All the above age grades are named and involve dif-
ferential behavior and dietary observances.
653333 — 47—15
188
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS
[B.A.E. Bull. 143
Death. — At death, the soul becomes a wild ghost if the person has been
violently killed and a regular resident of the village of the dead if he
has suffered a quiet death. A shaman's soul is translated to the skies.
Mourning puts an end to all religious ceremonies and is celebrated by
self -laceration, the destruction of property, and daily keening. There
is separate burial in formal cemeteries for those who died quietly and
those who died violently. The corpse is wrapped in a mat with his
weapons and ornaments, and the mat is hung in a shallow grave covered
by poles (fig. 22). Food and drink are provided for a short period.
After the next change of season, the bones are exhumed and placed in
a family urn.
Figure 22. — Carajd burial. (Redrawn from Ehrenreich, 1891 b, fig. 16)
WARFARE
The Carajd are good fighters and have maintained themselves since
prehistoric times in a territory surrounded on all sides by warlike enemies.
Their usual tactics are waiting outside an enemy village at night and
attacking at dawn. In defense, they run to the nearest water, where they
are unbeatable. They use the bow and arrow and club, and are skilled
wrestlers. They cut ofif a foot bone of a dead enemy and carry it back
to their village; this places them in control of the ghost, who now be-
comes a caretaker of the village and is impersonated in a special dry-
season ceremony. At one such ceremony there were two Tapirape ghosts,
three Chavante, one Cayapo, and one Neo-Brazilian. Present-day war-
fare is largely with the Chavante, the Cayapo, and the Canoeiro. Now
and then a Neo-Brazilian may be killed by stealth to avenge a personal
grievance. No captives are taken except women and small children,
who are treated as full members of the group.
ESTHETIC AND RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Art. — Decorative art is confined to woven designs on baskets and mats,
feather ornaments, elaborate masks with superimposed feather designs,
Vol. 3]
THE CARAJA— LIPKIND
189
mi
J.fln<jl»f?i
Figure 23.—Carajd wax and clay dolls. (Redrawn from Ehrenreich, 1891 b, pi. 12.)
190
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS
[B.A.E. Bull. 143
small clay dolls (fig. 23), delicately carved clubs, body paint designs,
and a little painting and incising of pottery.
0^1 "il
?^jm.
Figure 24. — Carajd masks. (Redrawn from Ehrenreich, 1891 b, figs. 18, 22.)
Music and dances. — The major art of the Carajd is music. A large
number of elaborate dances with complex songs, each dance having a
separate song style, make up the chief body of the music. These are
all religious. In addition, there are some secular dances, and songs are
interspersed in the tales. Musical instruments are very few, there being
only a rattle accompanying the singers and a small flute which is used
as a toy.
Vol. 3 J THE CARAJA— LIPKIND 191
Games. — Of numerous games, the most important is a formal wrestling
match which is an indispensable part of most religious ceremonies and
of all intervillage visits.
Narcotics and stimulants. — Like the other tribes in this region, the
Carajd have no alcoholic beverages. They smoke tobacco in short cylindri-
cal pipes (fig. 21, c). They are heavy smokers, some of the children
beginning before they are weaned.
SUPERNATURALISM
Cults. — Carajd religion consists of two distinct cults : a cult of the dead
and a mask cult (fig. 24). The cult of the dead, which is under the
direction of the priest, has for its object the placation of ghosts by a
periodical ceremonial which comes to its climax in several large calendrical
feasts. The most important of these feasts is the Big House Feast,
which is celebrated shortly after the beginning of the rainy season. All
the villages which comprise a ceremonial unit come to the one village
where the feast is conducted. There is a great mass of ceremonial
addressed to various classes of ghosts, but the central portion of the
ceremony is the impersonation of animal ghosts. Another important
feast, already mentioned, occurs at the height of the dry season and is
directed toward the control of enemy ghosts. Two other feasts held
in the dry season are chiefly for the entertainment of the ancestors.
The mask cult is concerned with the worship of another class of
supernaturals. It consists of an elaborate routine of feasts, interrupted
only by death. In these feasts, conducted by the shaman, the super-
naturals are impersonated in the complex dances mentioned above.
The two cults are independent of each other and are both strictly
men's cults. Any women intruding upon the secrets of the cults is sub-
jected to gang rape and remains a wanton thereafter.
Shamanism. — A shaman is trained by apprenticeship to an older
shaman. A certain amount of medical lore is taught but the essence of
the training is learning how to communicate with supernaturals in a state
of trance.
There is a considerable amount of sorcery. The main technique is
bottling a supernatural being into a small image and then directing it into
the body of the victim. As almost all deaths are interpreted as the result
of sorcery, feuding is continual.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Castlenau, 1850-59; Ehrenreich, 1891 b; Krause, 1911,
THE TURIWARA AND ARUA
By Curt Nimuendaju
THE TURIWARA
LANGUAGE, TERRITORY, AND HISTORY
Turiwara ("those of the Turi" — the meaning of Turi is unknown) is
the name used by this tribe and by the Temhe (map 1, No. 1 ; see
Volume 1, map 7). The Amanaye say Turiwd or Turiwa.
The Turiwara language is a Tupian dialect of the He- group, and
scarcely differs from the Urubu dialect, which has suggested the possi-
bility that the two tribes are local divisions of one people. That there
isi a river named Tury in the present habitat of the Urubu, and that an
Urubu group is called "Turkvara" is no proof of this possibility. Be-
cause the Urubu migrated to the Tury River, from Maranhao, only at the
beginning of the 20th century, whereas the Turiwara had left Maranhao
half a century earlier, the Urubu band named Turiwara can have no
connection with the Turiwara tribe.
The first record of the Turiwara language is a list of personal names
and their explanations compiled by Meerwarth (1904), who, however,
confused forms of the Lingua Geral with those of the Turiwara dialect.
The only published vocabulary consists of 103 words (Nimuendaju,
1914 c).
In the 18th century, a tribe named Turiwara was noted on the lower Tocantins
(Ribeiro de Sampalo, 1812, p. 8; Villa Real, 1848, p. 431). (Lat. 4°S., long. 48°W.)
It spoke Tupian, judging by the names of their two chiefs in 1793 : Tatahi (tata-i,
"little fire") and Areuanaju (arawana = a fish, Ichnosoma sp. + yu, suffix for
persons' names).
According to Temhe tradition, the Turiwara crossed the Gurupi River from the
present State of Maranhao shortly after the Temhe, probably between 1840 and
1850. In 1862, they lived in three villages on the Capim River below the Acarajugaua
Rapids : Suagupepora with 30 persons, Cauaxy with 15, and Cariucaua with 60. In
1871, the Pracateua Mission (Assumpgao) was founded on the Capim River with
500 (600?) Temhe and Turiwara. The following year, the murder of the missionary
to the Amanaye put an end to the Christianization (see p. 200). (Cunha, 1852, p. 82;
Brusque, 1862, p. 12; Cruz, 1874, p. 47; Souza Franco, 1842.) This evidently
prompted the Turiwara to move from the Capim River mission to the Acara
Grande River, where, in 1868, a large part of the tribe had already been established
near Miritipirange (Gama Malcher, 1878, p. 102). In 1885, there were 100 Turiivara
here, and 71 more on the left bank of the Acara Pequeno (Baena, 1885, p. 28). In
193
194 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
1899, Meerwarth (1904), the sole source of ethnographic information about the
Turiwara, visited the tribe on the Acara Grande River. They lived then in 8 places
below the Grande Rapids. In 1914, they numbered about 100, and all were on the
Acara Grande. In 1942, only 14 survived (Arquivos da Inspectoria do Servigo de
Protecgao aos Indios).
The Turiwara were, according to Meerwarth, visited from time to time by mer-
chants (regatoes), mostly Portuguese, traveling in canoes. The merchants cheated
the Indians outlandishly (Meerwarth, 1904).
CULTURE
Farming. — Manioc, cotton, urucu, and some bananas and oranges were
cultivated.
Houses. — The house was a long, rectangular building with gabled
roof and ridge pole. It had no walls.
Clothing. — The Turiwara wore clothes of civilized origin, but most of
the time they went about with the upper portion of their bodies unclothed.
Transportation. — Houses were connected by overland paths. For
river travel, the Turiwara had dugout canoes of the "casco" type, which
were hollowed and the side walls spread more widely apart by heating
inside and out over a fire and stretching. This is also the Neo-Brazilian
type. Some canoes had shields fore and aft. The paddle had a crutch
handle.
Manufactures. — Meerwarth (1904) lists manufactured objects : Pans
for flour making, baskets woven of timbo, carrying baskets woven of
liana with straps for hanging from the head and other straps for hanging
from the shoulders, painted and unpainted pottery, beautiful hammocks of
cotton dyed with urucii, gourds (Lagenaria) for holding water and others
for beverages, braziers which at night they put under their hammocks for
warmth, bows and arrows for fishing, rifles for hunting, bush knives, and
iron axes. The women made the hammocks and pottery. The men
hunted, fished, helped with flour making, and cut wood.
Social Usages. — The Turiwara were monogamous, though a chief for-
merly had several wives. A girl's father or, if she had no father, her
older relatives gave her in marriage without consulting her wishes. The
Turiwara practiced the couvade.
Meerwarth (1904) lists a series of men's and women's names which,
without exception, were nicknames, not true surnames, and referred to
the person's favorite food or to some amusing physical or mental
peculiarity.
Accompanied by loud monotonous singing and the music of taboca
flutes and clarinets (tore) made of the trunk of Cecropia, groups of
Turiwara danced slowly, always singing the same refrain.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
See Amanaye bibliography, page 202.
Vol. 3] THE TURIWARA AND ARUA— NIMUENDAJU 195
THE ARUA
TERRITORY, LANGUAGE, AND HISTORY
In the 17th century, the Arua {Arouen, Aroua) occupied the north-
eastern part of Mara j 6 Island (for Mara j 6 archeology, see this volume,
pp. 153-159), the islands of the estuary of the Amazon including Caviana,
and perhaps part of the mainland on the left bank of the estuary. Later,
they withdrew in part to Brazilian Guiana and the adjacent region of
French Guiana. This zone consists almost entirely of lakes and flood-
lands.
Vifiaza (1892) mentions no less than seven works in and on the Arua
language, written in the 18th century. Fr. Joaquim da Conceigao wrote
two religious texts ; Fr. Joao de Jesus, a religious text and a grammar ;
and Fr. Boaventura de Santo Antonio, a grammar. All these have been
lost. In 1877 in the village of Afua (Marajo), Penna (1881) compiled
a vocabulary given by the last Arua of the place, a shaman of about 75.
Penna thought the language was Carihan, but it is clearly Arawakan,
though quite different from that of the true Arawak of the Guiana Coast
and of the Palicur. In 1926 on the Uaga River, the present author found
no one who spoke the Arua language. Two old Indians, however, gave a
list of 30 vocables.
O'Brian del Carpio (ms.), who entered the estuary of the Amazon in
1621, was the first to mention the name Arua. On Sipinipoco Island (i.e.,
Sapanapok or Caviana, or else one of the adjacent islands?) he learned
the language which "they themselves called Arrua." Laet's map (1899)
made 4 years later is the first to record an Arouen Island (i.e., Curua or
another one near it?). At the same time, Des Forest (1899) mentions
near Cabo do Norte several Arouen villages of "Indians who wear their
hair long like women." Later writings and maps distinguish Joanes
Island (i.e., Marajo) and the Aruans Island or Islands.
The Arua appeared for the first time in the history of Marajo in 1643
when a ship was wrecked on the Para River. Father Luiz Figueira and
other passengers reached the coast of Marajo, where they were killed and
devoured by the Arua (Moraes, 1860). Berredo (1905, 2:66), how-
ever, who likes to emphasize the "barbarity and ferocity" of the Indians,
states that Figueira and others were drowned, and that nine others reached
Marajo Island, where six of them were killed, but he does not say eaten,
by the Arua. It seems that the Arua and the other tribes on Marajo
Island were always hostile to the Portuguese of Belem, although they
maintained friendly relations and commerce through the estuary of the
Amazon with other nations, especially the Dutch. Father Antonio Vieira
(1735-46, 1 :135-136) emphasizes several times that the blame for this
hostility lay with the Portuguese. By 1654, the Arua and "Nheengayba"
threatened the vicinity of the city of Belem itself (Berredo 1905, 2:95),
196 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
and an expedition was sent against them. (See also Bettendorf, 1910,
p. 112.)
These tribes rejected all offers of peace and pardon, and, although
Berredo stated that the war was ended with the "fatal annihilation of the
barbarians," another armed expedition was in preparation 4 years later.
Meanwhile, in 1652, Father Antonio Vieira had succeeded in having the
laws sanctioning Indian slavery abolished. He informed the Indians of
this and succeeded in making peace before the expedition went afield.
Among the tribes which in 1659 solemnly made peace on the Mapua River
and on Marajo were the Arud and their chief Piye (Peyhe), whose village
was in Rebordello, on the eastern point of Caviana Island (Vieira, 1735-
46, 1 :135, 151-169). The war was over and Christianization began, but
the Arua and other Marajo Indians began to migrate to Guiana. The fol-
lowing century is marked by this migration and by the Portuguese effort
to prevent it.
The peace had but a limited effect, probably because the Jesuits, after
a popular uprising in 1661, were compelled to stop enforcing the laws of
1652. In 1698, a number of the Arud were declared "undesirable on the
Northern coast because they were too friendly to the enemy" (the Dutch)
and were expatriated to Maranhao (Bettendorf, 1910, p. 663).
In 1701 there was another great conflict with the Arud of Marajo Island,
who were established in three villages near the mouth of the Paraguary
(Soure) River by Fr. Jose de Santa Maria, In the absence of the mis-
sionary, they were ill-treated by the residents of Belem and by the gov-
ernor himself, Fernao Carrilho, and left their villages. Upon his return,
the missionary and Fr. Martinho da Conceigao went up the Paraguary
River (Rio de Soure) to repair the damage, but the Indians killed them.
The following year, a punitive expedition of 60 soldiers and 200 Indians
captured some 200 Arud. The murderers of the two priests were executed
in Belem. (Southey, 1862, 5:90; Berredo, 1905, 2:399; Rocha Pombo,
1905, 6:338.) The same year the Arud of Ganhoao (north coast of
Marajo) were transferred to the village of the Aroaquis on the Urubu
River, in the present State of Amazonas. With Arud from the Cabo do
Norte, another village was founded near Belem (Caia or Monsaras?),
but the missionary was not able to prevent the escape of the Indians
(Annaes da Bibliotheca ... I, Nos. 79, 85).
Twenty years later, the Arud who had escaped to Guiana and obtained
French support, took the offensive against the Portuguese under a chief
named Koymara (Guayama, Guama). They attacked the Portuguese
settlements and for one year occupied the village of Moribira, 45 kilo-
meters north of Belem. (Rio-Branco, 1899, 2:53, 90, 101; Guajara,
1896, p. 166; Coudreau, H., 1886-87, 1:220.) These hostilities lasted
at least until 1727.
Vol. 3] THE TURIWARA AND ARUA— NIMUENDAJU 197
From 1738 to 1744, Father Lombard gathered the Maraon and Arua,
fugitives from the Portuguese missions, in the Ouanari mission, French
Guiana (Coudreau, H., 1895, p. 274). In 1743, Barrere recorded the
presence of Arua to the south of Mineur River (Amapa Grande?), stating
that they had outstanding ability as seamen. From 1784 to 1798, the
Portuguese depopulated the entire coast between the Amazon and the
Oyapock, taking the fugitive Indians to Para. As trade invariably attracted
the Indians to the French, it was essential that the Portuguese depopulate
a zone between Para and Cayena (Coudreau, H., 1886-87, 1:224).
Despite great dangers, however, a large part of the prisoners returned
in their fragile canoes to their refuge in Guiana. It was probably at this
time that part of the Arua settled on the Uaga River. The persecutions
stopped in the 19th century.
The Indians in Marajo disappeared during the first half of the 19th
century. In 1793, Arua were transferred from Chaves (north coast of
Marajo) to the lower Tocantins, where the village of Murii was founded
for them between the present Patos and Alcobaga (Almeida Pinto, 1906,
p. 188). Rebordello counted 279 Indians in 1816, but the last Arua of
Marajo and neighboring islands disappeared, probably in consequence of
the revolt of the Cabanos, 1834—36. A nucleus of Arua and Galihi, how-
ever, settled in Uaga, completely under French influence. With them were
also some Maraon, Palicur, and Itutan, and French Creoles, Chinese,
Arabs, and Brazilian Mestizos. In 1854, Father Dabbadie refers to 80
Aroua on the Uaqa River, and in 1891 H. Coudreau (1886) mentions 100.
In 1925, when the present author spent some time among the 160 Indians
of the Uaga River, the Arua component was much more reduced than the
Galihi. There was no longer any vestige of the other Indian components,
and the only language used was French Creole.
CULTURE
When the Galihi and the Arua gathered on the Uaga River, they prob-
ably brought very little of their own original culture, for both had been
influenced for nearly a century by the missionaries and other civilized
people. In consequence, they were greatly influenced by the Palicur, a
still relatively strong and intact tribe who had become their neighbors.
The little Indian culture that they still possess is practically identical to
that of the Palicur. Otherwise, their culture is adopted from the French
Creoles of Guiana and, to a lesser degree, from the Brazilians. The Servigo
de Protecgao aos Indios maintains a station among them.
There is nothing in the literature on the original culture of the Arua.
The paleoethnological (archeological) material in the urn cemeteries of
the region do not lead to any precise conclusion. On Caviana Island,
198 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.B. Bull. 143
stronghold of the Arud during the last phase of their ethnic existence, the
author investigated five urn cemeteries in 1925. Three of these contained
glass beads and other European objects. In historic times, only the Arud
are known to have inhabited the island, but the style of urn is very dif-
ferent in the three sites mentioned, and there is no certainty as to which
one belongs to the Arud. Only one thing is common to all: secondary
burial in urns.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Almeida Pinto, 1906; Annaes . . .; Ayres de Cazal, 1817; Baena, 1839, 1885;
Barrere, 1743 ; Berredo, 1905 ; Bettendorf , 1910 ; Coudreau, H., 1886-87, 1893 ; Forest,
1899; Guajara, 1896; Laet, 1899; Lettres edifiantes et curieuses, 1838 (1780-83);
Lombard, 1928; Moraes, 1860; Nimuendaju, 1926; O'Brian del Carpio, ms. ; Penna,
1881 ; Rio Branco, 1899 ; Rocha Pombo, 1905 ; Southey, 1862 ; Texeyra, 1640 ; Vieira,
1735^16 ; Vinaza, 1892.
THE AMANAYE
By Curt Nimuendaju and Alfred Metraux
LANGUAGE, TERRITORY, AND HISTORY
The names Amanajo, Manajo, and Manaxo were used in Maranhao, in
Piauhy, and on the lower Tocantins ; Amanage in Para. Mananye is the
name given by the Turiwara; Manasewa by the Tembe. The self-denom-
ination, Manaye or Amanaye, has uncertain meaning, but may be Guarani,
amandaye, an "association of people," or amanaje, "alcoviteiro" (Platz-
mann, 1896). In order to conceal their identity, some groups assumed
the name of Ararandewd {Ararandewdra, Ararandeuara) , "those of the
Ararandeua [River]," and Turiwd (Turiwara), the name of a neighbor
tribe.
On the Amanaye language there have been published only two small
vocabularies, both in 1914: Lange's and Nimuendajti's. It is the most
distinctive of the Tupi dialects of the He- group. As far as can be ascer-
tained from the vocabularies, there is no difference in the grammar.
The Amanaye (map 1, No. 1; see Volume 1, map 7) always occupied
the upper Pindare, the Gurupi, and the Capim Rivers, the middle Moju
River, and the central part of the right bank of the lower Tocantins below
the mouth of the Araguaya, and were found only rarely away from this
region (lat. 4° S., long. 48° W.).
They are first mentioned in 1755 when they made an agreement with the Jesuit
P. Daniel Fay (Tray? Tay?), of Acama (Mongao), a Guajajara village of the
Pindare River. They had evidently had previous contact with civilized people, for
they avoided all Whites except the Jesuits.
According to Ribeiro de Sampaio (1812, p. 9), in 1760, a large band of Amanaye
moved peacefully southeast to the Alpercatas River, and settled near the village of
Santo Antonio. By 1815 there were only 20 of this group, and they were mixed with
Negro blood. The last mention of this village was in 1820 (Francisco de N.S. dos
Prazeres, 1891, p. 132). A part of this band evidently continued its migration in 1763
across the Parnahyba River into Piauhy (Alencastre, 1857, p. 6), but its subsequent
fate is not known.
In 1775, the " Amanajoz" are listed among the tribes of the lower right Tocantins
(Ribeiro de Sampaio, 1812, pp. 8, 9), and, in 1798, they were seen to the east of the
Surubiju River (Mendes de Almeida, n.d., p. 104). In 1845, the "Amananiu" were
mentioned as inhabitants of part of the Mojii River by Saint- Adolphe. In 1854,
they had a village on the Pindare above the Guajajara village of Sapucaia (Marques,
199
200 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
1864), but by 1872 the village had been moved to the Tucumandiua, a western
tributary of the Gurupi River (Dodt, 1873, p. 132). In 1862, the Amanaye had two
villages with 60 people on the Ararandeua River, western tributary of the Capim
River, which has subsequently been their center.
In 1872, Fr. Candido de Heremence began to convert the Amanaye, Temhe and
Turiwara of the Capim River. With 200 Amanaye, he founded the Anauera Mission
(Sao Fidelis) on the left bank of the Capim River, below the confluence of the
Ararandeua and the Surubiju Rivers. The Turiwara and Tembe, being hostile to
the Amanaye, were established together farther downstream. The next year, the
Amanaye killed Fr. Candido and a Belgian engineer, Blochhausen, because during a
trip the latter dealt severely with the Amanaye crew and injured the chief's son.
(Souza Franco, 1842, p. 22; Cruz, 1874, p. 47; Moreira Pinto, 1894; Nimuendaju,
unpublished notes.) Reprisals against the Amanaye for these murders drove them
to take refuge in the region of the Ararandeua River. Today some of them still
avoid contact with the civilized people. Others appeared later under the name of
" Ararandewdra" or "Turiwara" to conceal their identity.
In 1889, the surviving Anambe and Amanajo, almost wiped out by epidemics on
the Arapary, lived by the last rapids of the Tocantins River (Ehrenreich, 1892,
p. 149).
In 1911, Inspector L. B. Horta Barboza, of the Servigo de Proteccao aos Indios,
found four Amanaye villages with more than 300 inhabitants on the left bank of the
Ararandeua River. In 1913, another, more primitive part of the tribe, calling itself
Ararandewdra, was visited by Algot Lange on the upper Moju River, at approxi-
mately lat. 4° S. He has published the only description of the Amanaye (Lange,
1914).
During several decades at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the
20th, the most important person among the Amanaye of the Ararandeua River
was a mulatto woman named Damasia, wife of a member of the tribe. In 1926,
Nimuendaju saw a small group of Amanaye, who called themselves Ararandewd{ra) ,
in Mundurucii at lat. 3°55' S. They had a plantation on the Moju River. In 1942,
only 17 persons, mostly Mestizos, survived in the group headed by Damasia's son
(Arquivos da Inspectoria do Servigo de Protecgao aos Indios, Para, 1942). These
people stated that another group lived away from all contact with the civilized
people, on the Igarape do Garrafao, a left tributary of the Ararandeua River. In
1943, Nimuendaju found a small group of Amanaye, who had been living for several
decades, in contact with Neo-Brazilians, on the upper Cairary, a tributary on the
left bank of the lower Moju. They called themselves Turiwa(ra) .
CULTURE
Subsistence. — ^The Amanaye cultivated manioc, cotton, and tobacco in
forest clearings. One clearing measured 1,000 by 1,300 yards. These
Indians also hunted, especially turtles, which were abundant. Turtles not
consumed at once were kept in small corrals.
Dogs and chickens were introduced by the White man.
Manioc was prepared in a special hut; the tubers were crushed in a
trough made of the miriti palm trunk, pressed through a coarse-meshed
fiber sifter, then kneaded into balls which were allowed to ferment on a
platform. Subsequently, the paste was squeezed in the cylindrical tipiti,
or manioc squeezer, after which the dry pulp was crushed and spread on
Vol. 3] THE AMANAYE— NIMUENDAJU AND METRAUX 201
a hot clay pan with slightly upturned edges. Brazil nuts might be added
to manioc flour to improve its taste.
Dwellings. — The Amanaye village that Lange visited had 26 houses "of
a very low order, some not having a proper roof, built around a small area
of bush cleared forest." The only furniture was small cotton hammocks.
Clothing. — Amanaye men wore nothing but a short cotton string tied
around the praeputium, while women wore only a narrow loincloth.
Men's ornaments included little wooden sticks in the lower lip and tur-
key feathers stuck in colored cotton bands around the head. Women wore
"garter-like cotton bands below their knees and on their ankles; . . .
some of the youngest maidens insert ornaments made of the ivory nut in
their ear lobes" (Lange, 1914).
Boats. — Dugout canoes, 35 feet (10.6 m.) long, and 5 feet (1.5 m.)
wide, were made of trees felled in the forest and dragged to the water on
rollers by means of creepers.
Manufactures. — Manioc squeezers were plaited of strong miriti palm
and tucum fibers. Cotton spindles had a rounded wooden disk. The loom
was "a simple square frame made of four sticks about 2 feet [0.6 m.]
long, tied together with fiber or ordinary bush-cord to form a square"
(Lange, 1914). Cloth, like hammocks, was loosely twined with a double
weft. Loincloths were stained red with urucii.
The only pottery mentioned is the clay manioc pan.
Weapons. — Bows were large — one being 8 feet (2.4 m.) long and 4
inches (10 cm.) in diameter — and notched at each end for a curaua fiber
bowstring. Arrows were tipped either with a bamboo blade or with a
sharp rod with a few barbs on each side. Occasionally, a small nut which
produced a whistling sound was fastened near the tip. Arrow feathering
was either of the eastern Brazilian arched or of the Xingii sewn type.
Stone axes, used until recently, had carefully ground, quadrangular
heads of diorite with a notch running along the face near the butt. The
head was inserted in the split end of a shaft of pao d'arco and lashed
with heavy fibers, then covered with the black gum from the jutahy tree.
Fire making. — Fire was made with a fire drill. Two men working
together could make a fire in 2 minutes.
Social and political organization. — Lange observed an Amanaye
chief whose weak personality suggested that he must have inherited
his position. Lange gives no other information on political or social
organization.
Prior to marriage, young men proved their fortitude by plunging an
arm into a braided fiber cylinder that was closed at both ends and filled
with tocandeira ants.
Musical instruments. — ^The Amunaye had a drum that is unusual in
this area: A long, hollow emba-uba tree trunk was suspended from a
202 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
horizontal branch by a thin, tough bush rope. While one man beat
the drum with a stick, "another, probably a shaman, danced around it"
(Lange, 1914).
Tobacco. — Tobacco was smoked in huge cigarettes, 1 foot (0.3 m.)
long and 3^ inch (1.2 cm.) thick, wrapped in tauari bark. These were
passed around, each man taking a few draughts in turn.
Drinks. — The Amanaye drank a fermented beverage (probably of
cassava) called cachiri.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
(Amanaye and Turiwara)
Aguiar, 1851 ; Alencastre, 1857 ; Arquivos da Inspectoria . . . , 1942 ; Baena, 1885 ;
Brusque, 1862, 1863; Cruz, 1874; Cunha, 1852; Daniel, 1840; Dodt, 1873; Ehrenreich,
1892; Francisco de Nuestra Senora dos Prazeres, 1891 ; Gama Malcher, 1878; Lange,
1914; Marques, 1864; Meerwarth, 1904; Mendes de Almeida, n.d. ; Moreira Pinto,
1894; Nimuendaju, 1914 c, unpublished notes; Platzmann, 1896; Ribeiro, 1848
(1870); Ribeiro de Sampaio, 1812; Servigo de Protecgao aos Indies, 1942; Souza
Franco, 1842 ; Villa Real, 1848.
LITTLE-KNOWN TRIBES OF THE LOWER
TOCANTINS RIVER REGION
By Curt Nimuendaju
INTRODUCTION
This article will deal with the Pacaja, Anambe, Tapiratia, Kupe-rob
(Jandiahi), Jacunda, Paracand, and Mirano. These tribes, most of them
rM/Ji-speaking, are now virtually extinct (map 1, No. 1 ; see Volume 1,
map 7).
THE PACAJA
Pacaja {Pacajara) means in Tupi, "master {ydra) of the paca" {Coelo-
genys paca). According to Bettendorf (1910, pp. 97, 111), the Pacaja
used the Lingua Geral.
TERRITORY AND HISTORY
This tribe appears to have centered in the basin of the Pacaja de
Portel River, It may also have lived in the lower Tocantins River and
the lower Xingii River where a right tributary is named Pacaja (de
Souzel) River. (Lat. 2° S., long. 52° W.)
In 1613, an expedition of French from Sao Luiz do Maranhao and their allies,
the Tupinamba, passed the Pacaiares River in a campaign against the Camarapin.
Later, Father Yves d'Evreux (1864) makes a passing mention of the Pacaja. In
1626(?), Benito Maciel Parente (1874) mentioned them with the Yuruna and other
tribes between the Pacaja and "Parnahyba" (Xingu) Rivers, In 1628, the Pacaja
were "appeased" (Berredo, 1905, 1: 229, 231) by Pedro da Costa Favella on his
expedition to the Tocantins (Pacaja?) River. Bettendorf (1910, p. 97) recounts with
some exaggeration that at their first meeting the Pacaja and the Tupinamba an-
nihilated each other. In 1639, the Pacaja are mentioned by Acuiia ( 1682, p. 139) as
inhabitants of the Pacaja River. Between 1656 and 1662, an ill-fated expedition
went in search of mines on the Pacaja River, and the Jesuit Father Joao de Souto
Mayor, who accompanied it, died (Berredo, 1905, 2: 115). It resulted, however, in
the Pacaja entering a Jesuit mission (Arucara or Portel?), from whence a large
part escaped again to their own land. The others were sent to distant missions
(Bettendorf, 1910, p. 98; Joao Daniel, 1841, p. 182). In 1763, the Pacaja are men-
tioned for the last time by De Sao Jose (1947, p. 490) as one of the 13 tribes consti-
tuting the population of 400 in the village of Portel.
In 1889, Ehrenreich (1891 a, p. 88; 1892, p. 149) was told of the existence of
savage Pacaja at the headwaters of the Uanapu and Pacaja Rivers near Portel,
a statement not subsequently confirmed.
653333—47—16
203
204 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.B. Bull. 143
CULTURE
Acufia (1682, p. 139) and Bettendorf (1910, p. 97) considered the
Pacajd brave and warlike. P. Sotto Mayor (1916) accuses them of can-
nibalism. In warfare, they eat the enemy which they kill by hand, and
keep the skulls as trophies. Some 100 years later, Joao Daniel (1841)
describes them as "very soft and lazy" (i. e., for work in the mission).
The women wore short skirts and the men short trousers, which they
might have adopted from the runaway slaves who settled at the head-
waters of the Pacaja River (?). They were a canoe people; at their
encounter with the Tupinamba, they came "in over 500 canoes" — evidently
an exaggeration.
THE ANAMBE
HISTORY AND TERRITORY
The Anambe ("anambe" in the Lingua Geral is applied to a considerable
number of species of birds, Cotingidae) were, by contrast to the Pacaja,
a modern tribe, which appeared and disappeared during the past century.
The Anambe language, according to Ehrenreich's vocabulary, was a
Tupi dialect of the He- group, very similar to the Tembe-Guajajara and
Turiwara. If the texts of legends in the Lingua Geral published by
Magalhaes (1876) were, as he says, dictated by Anambe, this tribe was
bilingual, and at the time did not use its own language.
The Anambe's (lat. 4°-5° S., long. 50°-51° W.) first contact with the civilized
people was in 1842 (Brusque, 1862, p. 12). In 1852, they appeared on the left bank
of the Tocantins River (Cunha, 1853, p. 18) ; they numbered 600. Another group
lived in the village of Taua at the headwaters of the Cururuhy, a tributary of the
upper Pacaja River, but it was in contact with the first byway of the Caripy River,
a tributary of the Tocantins a little above Alcobaga. A village of 250 Curupity (?)
and Anambe on the upper Pacaja River was at war with the Carambu (Brusque,
1862, p. 12). In 1874, this village was reduced to 46 persons. The following year
37 of them died of smallpox, and the 9 survivors joined their fellow tribesmen on
the Tocantins River.
In 1889, Ehrenreich found a remnant of four completely civilized Anambe in
Praia Grande, at the end of the Tocantins rapids. Moura (1910, p. 106) mentions
Anambe in 1896 and shows a picture of two men. The supposed "Anambe" seen
by H. Coudreau in 1897 were Arara. The tribe is today completely extinct.
THE TAPIRAUA
The Tapiraua (tapiira, "tapir"), or Anta, lived west of Itaboca Falls
in 1889 (Ehrenreich, 1891 a, 1892).^ Each time they came to the shore
of the Tocantins, they were driven back by gun shots. They still used
stone implements.
In 1896 or 1897 (Moura, 1910, p. 192), two "Tapiri," or Anta, ap-
peared a few kilometers below Timbozal. They had short hair and their
^ The distance from the Tocantins is given as 3 to 4 days' travel (Ehrenreich, 1891 a, p. 88),
and as 1 day's travel (Ehrenreich, 1892, p. 148).
Vol. 3] TRIBES OF LOWER TOCANTINS— NIMUENDAJU 205
ears were pierced ,by tiny holes, but they lacked tattoo. This tribe is not
subsequently mentioned by name, but it may possibly be the same as the
Kupe-rob.
THE KUPE-ROB
Apinaye tradition relates that a tribe called Kupe-rob (Kupe, "Indians,"
i.e., non-Timbira, plus rob, "jaguars") or, in Portuguese, Cupe-lobos,
lived below them on the Tocantins River (lat. 5° S., long. 50° W.), and
that the Apinaye occasionally attacked them to obtain European-made
white beads before the Apinaye had begun to trade with the civilized
people. The Kupe-rob perhaps are identical with the Jandiahi who, in
1793, lived below Ita,boca Falls (Villa Real, 1848, p. 426), and, in 1844
(Castelnau, 1850, p. 113), lived on the west shore near Itaboca Falls.
At the later date, they were hostile to the Jacundd and to the Christians,
and only rarely were met by travelers. Baena (1870) mentions their
habitat as Lake Vermelho, at lat. 5° 10' S., west of the Tocantins and
below the mouth of the Araguaya. In 1849, Ayres Carneiro (1910, pp.
78-79, 81, 84, 90-91) found famished and lean Cupe-lobos on the Can-
hanha beach, near the Igarape do Pucuruhy, lat. 4° 10' S., where they
were persecuted by the Apinaye. In 1896, this tribe appeared peacefully
in the Rebojo de Bacury, a little above Itaboca Falls, hunting and fishing,
and using apites (labrets?) of glass (?) or worked stone (Moura, 1910,
pp. 160, 193). Above Timbozal (a little above the mouth of the Pucuruhy
River), they had an old village site,
H. Coudreau (1897 b, p. 43 and map) had a report in 1897 of un-
identified Indians on the upper Igarape do Bacury. The year before
these Indians had come in contact with the civilized people. They were
at first peaceful but soon became hostile.
In 1922, eight wild Indians appeared on Volta Grande, on the left bank
of the Tocantins. Both sexes had their hair cut all around, and wore a
little stick through the ears. The men had their foreskin tied with an
embira string, and the woman wore a band of the same material. The
children were carried in a sling under the arm. The belly of the bow was
flat, the outer side, convex. The bow string was made of curaua
{Bromelia) and the arrows had flush feathering. A hammock was made
of fibers.
One of the men, taken to Belem seriously ill, gave the author a list of
16 words. The language was Tupi of the He- group, definitely distinct
from Ehrenreich's Anambe and from Amanaye. As the material culture
of these people did not correspond to that of the Paracand, it is possible
that they were the Kupe-rob survivors. Also, it is possible that the
Indians who occasionally came peaceably to the post of the Servico de
Protecqao aos Indios on the Pucuruhy River were not Paracana, as sup-
•^osed, but Kupe-rob. The people at the post noted that they called cer-
206 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
tain plants and animals by Tupi names, similar to those of the Neo-
Brazilians. In 1942, unknown Indians were again seen in the Igarape do
Bacury, and it may be that the tribe still exists around there.
THE JACUNDA
At the end of the 18th century and during the first half of the 19th
century, the Jacundd lived on the Jacunda River, which empties into the
Tocantins from the right below Itaboca Falls (lat. 4° 27' S., long. 49°
W.). The name designates a fish (Crenicichla sp.). Meneses' diary
(n. d., p. 175) ascribes to these Indians "red eyes, just like those of a
certain fish by the same name."
The only record of the Jacundd language is the names of two chiefs of
1793: Uoriniuera, which is a Tupian word (warinikwera, "old war"),
and Claxira, which is contrary to Tupi phonetics. A map of Brazil of
1846 states: "Jacunda, tractable people who speak the Lingua Geral"
(Niemaeyer, 1846).
The Jacundd were first mentioned by Villa Real (1848, pp. 424-426, 432) in 1793,
when they lived at the headwaters of the Igarape Guayapi (Jacunda River?) and
occasionally appeared on the eastern bank of the Tocantins. Another igarape
(water passage) above Itaboca Falls was also inhabited by the Jacundd, who had a
port at its mouth. According to Villa Real, the Jacundd had two chiefs. Meneses
(1919, p. 175) mentions the Jacundd in 1799 on the Igarape of Jacunda, and Ribeiro
(1870, p. 37) mentions them in 1815 among the tribes of the Tocantins River.
According to Castelnau (1850), they lived in 1844 on the right bank of the Tocantins,
above Itaboca Falls, and were hostile to the Jundiahi (Kupe-robf) of the opposite
bank and to Christians, who rarely saw them. In 1849, they were said to be peaceful.
In 1849, Ayres Carneiro (1910, p. 45) saw 30 to 40 Jacundd, including women and
children, on the Ambaua beach, a little above the present Alcobaga, on the right
side of the river, but they fled into the jungle. Henceforth, their name disappears,
and, since 1859 the Gavioes, a Timbira tribe of the Ge group (Handbook, vol. 1,
p. 477), has occupied their region (Gomes, 1862, p. 496). Ehrenreich, however,
mentions the Jacundd in 1889, 30 years after they had probably become extinct.
THE PARACANA
HISTORY
in 1910, an unknown tribe of savage Indians appeared on the Pacaja
River above Portel. Their repeated attacks on the Arara-Pariri caused
the latter to abandon their territory on the Iriuana River, a left tributary
of the Pacaja, and to take refuge with the Neo-Brazilians on the lower
Pacaja. The Pariri called this tribe Paracand (lat. 4*-5° S., long. SC-
SI" W.). Perhaps it was the same tribe that, under the name of Yauariti-
Tapiiya, was hostile to the Anambe of the Pacaja River during the last
century (this volume, p. 204). At first they were at peace with the Neo-
Brazilians, and at times helped them pass Cachoeira Grande Fall of the
Pacaja River.
Vol. 3] TRIBES OF LOWER TOCANTINS— NIMUENDAJU 207
According to information obtained from the Pariri in 1914, the
Paracand call thunder, "tumpo" {Tupi, tupa), and water, "i" (Tupi, i).
The Paracand language is, therefore, possibly a member of the Tupian
family.
During the 1920's, the Paracand began to appear on the left bank of the
Tocantins, above Alcobaga. They were pretentious and demanding, and,
though they used no weapons, they frightened the residents away and
pillaged their houses. After 1927, they became openly hostile toward
the civilized residents. They would come shooting arrows, and every
year they killed people, but they did not mutilate the bodies nor take
trophies. Civilized people attributed this hostility to the entrance of nut
gatherers into the regions west of the Tocantins. After one of these at-
tacks, the head of the Alcobaga Railroad ordered a punitive expedition,
which surprised and killed the Paracand in their camp. This incited the
Paracand to attack even within sight of Alcobaga and to extend their raids
north to Juana Peres and the upper Jacunda River, During the last
two years, however, their raids on the Tocantins side have for an unknown
reason ceased completely.
While on the Pacaja, these Indians were always known as Paracand,
a name given to them by the Pariri. It was wrongly believed on the
Tocantins that they were Asurini from the Xingii River.
CULTURE
Clothing and ornaments. — The Paracand cut the hair around the head
and wore a wooden peg through the lower lip. Several items of apparel
are among 142 Paracand objects in the Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi.
There are short cotton women's skirts, 18 inches (45 cm.) long, made
with a twined weave, the weft elements a finger's breadth apart. The
warp runs all the way around each garment, the cloth being tubular, like
that produced by the "Arawak" loom. Some strings of red cotton
threads are probably pectoral ornaments. There are necklaces of black
tiririca {Scleria sp.) seeds, alternating with fine tubular bones. A
child's (?) headband is made of close-looped cotton string with a strip of
Neo-Brazilian cloth and 15 macaw tail feathers carelessly attached. A
comb is made of 12 teeth bound with thread between two pairs of sticks ;
the wrapping is not ornamental. Jingles, probably worn below the knee
or on the ankle, are made of piqui {Caryocar sp.) nuts hung on cotton
thread.
Basketry. — A rectangular basket of the "jamaxim" type for carrying
objects on the back has the outer side and the top end open. The side
against the carrier's back and the bottom have a twilled weave and black
zigzag designs; the outer sides have a fine, open octagonal weave, the
strips running in four directions.
208 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
Weaving. — A hammock 58 inches (1.8 m.) long, is woven of twined
cotton strings and of strings taken from hammocks stolen from Neo-
Brazilians. The weft elements are 3 to 4 inches (7 to 10 cm.) apart.
Weapons. — Arrows have camayuva shafts, 54 to 66 inches (1.4 to
1.7 m.) long, and sewn feathering which is bound with fine thread and
frequently decorated with small toucan feathers. Three types of heads are :
(1) Lanceolate bamboo blades, 24 inches (70 cm.) long and about 2 inches
(5.5 cm.) broad at the widest point. These are smeared with black paint
on the concave side and a few specimens bear a crude black design on the
convex side. Just behind the point, some arrows have a palm coconut,
about \y2 inches (4 cm.) in diameter, perforated with a row of as many
as nine holes around it. (2) Bone points, either without barbs or with a
barb on one or both sides. (3) Plain, rodlike wooden points. The bow
is of paxiuba wood, very wide (5 cm., or 2 in.), flat (1 to 2 cm. thick),
similar to the Asurini bow. It is about 159.5 cm. (62 in.) long. The
ends are cut with shoulders, to hold the cord, 5 cm. and 11.5 cm. respec-
tively from the ends.
Fire. — Torches are made of cotton cords or of Neo-BraziHan cloth, and
are impregnated with beeswax.
Musical instruments. — A set of panpipes has 8 tubes, ranging from
53^ to 10 inches (12 to 26 cm.) in length and 5 to 12 mm. in diameter
and held together by two parallel ligatures of Neo-Brazilian cotton.
THE MIRANO
Rivet (1924, p. 689) places a Tupi tribe of Mirano Indians "between the
Acara and Capim Rivers at the headwaters of the Bujaru." On the
map of the State of Para by Santa Rosa, the "Indios Miranhios" appear
on the left margin of the Capim River, at lat. 2°30' S. There was never
any tribe by this name, however. Among the Tembe there was a large
family called "Miranya." The present author found members of this
family in the Indian village of Prata as late as 1916. Since the place
where the Mirano was supposed to be settled coincides almost exactly
with the old Tembe village of Mariquita, it is probable that the so-called
Mirano were in reality Tembe.
According to Metraux (1928 a, p. 22), "Amiranha" is a synonym of
Jacimdd. The Amanaye of the Ararandeua River spoke to the present
author in 1913 about a tribe called Mirdn, but they could not tell him
where they were settled.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Acuna, 1682 ; Ayres Carneiro, 1910 ; Baena, 1870 ; Berredo, 1905 ; Bettendorf, 1910 ;
Brusque, 1862; Castelnau, 1850; Coudreau, H., 1897 b; Cunha, 1853; Daniel, 1841;
Ehrenreich, 1891 a, 1892, 1895; Gomes, 1862, Maciel Parente. 1874; Magal-
haes, 1876; Meneses, 1919; Metraux, 1928 a; Moreira Pinto, 1894; Moura, 1910;
Niemaeyer, 1846; Nimuendaju, 1939; Ribeiro, 1870; Rivet, 1924; Sao Jose, 1847;
Sotto Mayor, 1916; Souza, 1874; Villa Real, 1848; Yves d'Evreux, 1864.
LITTLE-KNOWN TRIBES OF THE LOWER AMAZON ^
By Curt Nimuendaju
THE ARACAJtJ
In 1668-69, an expedition, led by Major J. de Almeida Freire, started
out along the Tocantins River against the Poqui Indians, who lived 8 days'
march from its banks. On the way back, the expedition passed the
Aracaju and brought back many bows and arrows, "with some wide and
long shields, covered with beautiful feathers" (Bettendorf, 1910, p. 32).
(Lat. 4° S., long. 52° W.)
In 1679, P. Jodoco Peres, of Jaguaqtiara (north side of the Amazon, above the
mouth of the Paru) sought the Aracajii who were "in the wilds of the Tocanhapes,"
i.e., the right side of the lower Xingu, south of the Amazon. In 1680, P. Antonio
dc Silva went by way of the ba3'Ou (Pacaja de Souzel River) and the backwoods
of the Tocanhapes, and brought some 400 Indians down to the Indian village of
Cussary (in front of the present Monte Alegre, on the right side of the Amazon).
Shortly thereafter, in 1681, however, Bettendorf tells about being received by the
chiefs of the Aracaju in Jaguaquara, where these Indians had made a large house,
which they abandoned because the land there was very poor for agriculture (Betten-
dorf, 1910, pp. 324, 335, 337). By 1681, therefore, the Aracajii were no longer in
Cussary, south of the Amazon, but in Jaguaquara, on the northern side. It seems
tliat they settled on the Paru River, where their presence is mentioned in 1702, when
the Commissary of the Capuchins, Fr. Jeronymo de Sao Francisco, transferred
Indians from five tribes, among them the Aracaju, to the new Indian village of the
Aroaqui on the Urubu River (Ferreira, 1841).
Martius found in 1820 that the Aracaju and Apama comprised the population of
Almeirim (Spix and Martius, 1823-31, 1:324). The few Aracaju still at liberty
Hved on the Paru River in small isolated Indian villages. Altliough at peace with the
Brazilians, they could rarely be persuaded to live among them. They were rather
dark Indians, with no distinguishing characteristics. Their weapons were not
poisoned. They were constantly at war with the "Oaiapis" (JVayapi) of the upper
Jary and Iratapuru Rivers and with the Cossari of the Araguaya River. Subse-
quently, no further mention is made of them.
Martius, who tends to explain all names by the Lingua Geral, interprets
Aracajii as uara-guagu, "great people." He considers "wara" to be a
substantive, meaning "man" or "people," whereas it is really a personal
ending. The vocabulary (1863, p. 17) which he collected in Gurupa also
calls forth the following remarks : Of his 53 words, 24 are clearly Tupi
1 Map 1, No. 1 ; see Volume 1, map 7.
209
210 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
and 21 no less clearly Carib, while 8 cannot be definitely identified. The
Tupi words belong to the Lingua Geral, not to some special dialect, and,
therefore, probably do not represent the tribe's original tongue but the
language which they learned at the mission. The Carib words are not
identical with those of the Aparai, as Rivet thought (1924, p. 660), though
they have greater resemblance to the dialects north of the Amazon than to
those of the south (e.g., Arara, etc.). Because the Aracaju came from
the south of the Amazon, one reaches the conclusion that these Carib
words also do not represent the original Aracaju language, but that they
were acquired through contact with some Carib tribe after they lived north
of the Amazon, and that their own original tongue has been lost entirely.
THE APOTO
In the Aparai language, apoto means "fire," and thus Araujo Amazonas
and Ignacio Accioly write the name of a tribe which is also called, probably
by a mistaken transcription, Apanto and Apauto. The few references to
this tribe are all based on that of Christobal d'Acuna in 1639 (1682),
wherein he states that four tribes lived on the Cunurizes (Nhamunda)
River, the first having lent its name to the river on the mouth of which
it lived, and the second, above the mouth, being the Apoto tribe "which
speaks the Lingua Geral." This is all that is known about these Indians.
THE PAUXI
Three sources give slight information about a tribe or tribes called
Pauxi.
(1) The Pauxi (pausi, paushi, undoubtedly a Carib word meaning
"mutum," Cracidae sp. ; cf. Pansiana, a Carib tribe on Caratirimani River) ,
according to Bettendorf (1910), spoke the Lingua Geral. It was settled
in the region of the Xingu River. Between 1658 and 1660, the Jesuit,
P. Salvador do Valle, brought more than 600 of this tribe to the Indian
village of Tapara, on the right side of that river, almost at its mouth.
There is no further notice of them.
(2) The "Fort of the Pauxis" was founded in 1697 on the left bank
of the Amazon, where the present-day Villa de Obidos is situated, and
Pauxis is today still the name of a lake just below this village. Near
this fort there were two small Indian villages which, in 1758, were com-
bined with another from farther away in the Villa de Obidos (Moraes,
1860, p. 508), but nothing further is known of the tribe or tribes which
lived there. P. Fritz (1922), in 1690, speaks of the tribe of the "Cunur-
izes" (map of 1691) exactly on the spot where the fort was to be built
6 years later.
(3) When O. Coudreau (1901) mapped the "Cumina" River (Erepe-
curu) in 1900, a descendant of fugitive slaves living on this river informed
her that a tribe of Indians called Pauxi (pronounced pausi, paushi) lived
Vol. 3] TRIBES OP LOWER AJVIAZON— NIMUENDAJU 211
in the headwaters of the Agua Fria, Penecura, and Acapu Bayous, right
tributaries of the Erepecurii River, a little above its mouth. According
to this information, the tribe had first lived in Obidos, but before the
coming of civilized people, it retreated to the Erepecuru River, then to
the mouth of the Penecura River, and, finally, to the headwaters of this
river. After 1877, its relations with the fugitive slaves had been broken.
From the same informant, Coudreau obtained a list of 38 words. The
language is Carib, but it differs from the dialect of the Kasuend {Cash-
uend) of the Cachorro River, their nearest neighbors, and from that of
the Pianocoto of the upper Erepecuru (Coudreau, O., 1901, pp. 132-133).
The Pauxi no longer exist.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Acufia, 1682; Berredo, 1905, vol. 1; Bettendorf, 1910; Coudreau, O, 1901;
Ferreira, A. R., 1841; Fritz, 1691, 1922; Martius, 1863; Moraes, 1860; Rivet, 1924;
Sao Jose, 1847 ; Spix and Martius, 1823-31, vol. 3.
TRIBES OF THE LOWER AND MIDDLE XINGC RIVER
By Curt Nimuendaju
GEOGRAPHIC BACKGROUND
The Xingii Basin, as far south as lat. 7° S., is exclusively characterized
by Amazonian virgin forest, whose wealth of rubber and nuts attracted
the attention of civilized man. From that latitude south or upstream,
savannas appear, becoming more and more predominant southward, until
the forest is reduced to a narrow border along watercourses, sometimes
even encroaching upon the river banks.
It is rolling country. The "Morro Grande" of the Xingii River rises
to some 975 ft. (300 m.) above the level of the river. The watercourses
are interrupted by rapids and the Xingii River beyond Volta Grande
is one of the most difficult rivers in Brazil to navigate. Over long
stretches the bed of the river is filled with enormous rocks cut through
by channels full of rapids. The Iriri River is of similar type.
The tribes (map 1, No. 1 ; see Volume 1, map 7) of this region may
be classified according to these geographical features into three groups.
(1) Canoeing tribes restricted to the Xingii, Iriri, and Curua Rivers:
Yuruna, Ship ay a, Arupai.
(2) Tribes of the central virgin forest: Curuaya, Arara, Asurini, and,
formerly, Tacunyape.
(3) Savanna tribes that only temporarily invade the forest zone:
Northern Cayapo, which were dealt with in Lowie's paper on "The
Northwestern and Central Ge" (Handbook, vol. 1, pp. 477-517).
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Farming, with manioc the staple crop, was the basis of subsistence
among all these tribes except perhaps the Arara, who were less clearly
horticultural. Caimans, turtles, honey, and Brazil nuts were outstanding
wild foods. The Yuruna, Shipaya, and Tacunyape built large communal
dwellings in isolated places for fear of attack. Excellent canoemen, the
Yuruna and Shipaya lived along the rivers, whereas the other tribes kept
to the forests. Houses were furnished with wooden stools and ham-
mocks. Dress included breechclouts (?) {Curuaya), women's wrap-
around skirts, and men's penis covers ( Yuruna and Shipaya), and women's
213
214 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
aprons (Tacupyape) . Ornaments were the usual Tropical Forest types:
feather headdresses, arm and leg bands, necklaces, ear sticks, nose
pendants (Arara), and lip plugs {Curuaya). Among manufactures,
which suffered because of much nomadism enforced by warfare, were:
Cotton textiles (Yuruna) ; ceramics, which are usually plain; incised
gourds (Shipaya) ; and stone axes. The bow and arrow was the main
weapon.
The sociopolitical unit was the village, seemingly patrilineal in organiza-
tion and in descent of chieftainship. There was little polygyny and family
ties were very strong. Intertribal relations involved intermittent warfare,
with cannibalism ascribed to the Yuruna and Shipaya and trophies more
general. The latter include skulls (Yuruna, Shipaya, Curuaya), bone
trumpets (Yuruma), tooth necklaces (Shipaya), and scalps (Arara).
These tribes drank much fermented liquor, but had no drunken brawls.
The Yuruna smoked tobacco in cigarettes. Musical instruments include
panpipes; shaman's gourd rattles; gourd horns; gourd, wooden, and
human-skull trumpets; bone flutes, clarinets, and whistles. The pre-
dominating art motif is the maze; sculpture reproduced mythical
personages.
Shipaya and probably Yuruna religion was based on a cult of the jaguar
demon, who was the patron of war and cannibalism, and a feast of the
dead, in which men and women drank chicha. The Tacunyape had a
similar feast. The shaman, in the capacity of priest, served as inter-
mediary between people and demons and souls. As medicine man, he
cured, without the aid of supernatural spirits, by sucking, massaging,
and blowing cigarette smoke to remove the disease-causing substance.
LINGUISTIC AFFINITIES
Of the tribes on the lower and middle Xingu, the Arara stand apart
as Carihan. Their speech is so close to Yaruma (Paranayuba River, a
tributary of the right bank of the upper Xingii) as to permit the hypothesis
of a common ancestral tribe, the Arara turning north, the Yaruma south,
perhaps separating under Cayapo pressure (Ehrenreich, 1895).
All other tribes are Tupi. To be sure, there is not the slightest record
of Asurini speech, but an English missionary conversant with Guajajara
who spoke with a young Asurini woman captured by the Gorotire com-
mented on the resemblance of her tongue to the language familiar to
him. Accordingly, Asurini may be reckoned as probably Tupi. About
the remaining languages we can be more positive.
Martius (1867) and Lucien Adam (1896) challenge the Tupi relation-
ship of Yuruna, which is accepted by such competent authorities as Betten-
dorf, Von den Steinen, and Brinton. Closer study leads me to the
provisional conclusion that Yuruna, Shipaya, Manitsaud, and perhaps
Arupai form a special division of impure Tupi languages. Lexical Tupi
Vol. 3] TRIBES OF LOWER AND MIDDLE XINGU— NIMUENDAJU 215
elements in Yuruna are conspicuous, though often obscured by alterations
so that correspondences are proved only by comparison with Shipaya and
Manitsaud equivalents. Contrary to Adam's assumption, there are also
important grammatical features of Tupi type, though less numerous than
might be inferred from the large percentage of Tupi vocables. However,
the Yuruna group does differ greatly from Tupi proper, especially in the
pronominal system. The present author tentatively recognizes four com-
ponents: (1) A Tupi foundation, even anciently modified by strong
influences due to (2) Arazvak, and in lesser degree to (3) Carib languages ;
to these must be added (4) recent loans from the Lingua Geral.
Shipaya differs so little from Yuruna as to permit, with some trouble,
mutual intelligibility. Some two dozen words differ radically; otherwise
regular shifts appear:
Yuruna
Shipaya
.
pi
:=
si
pe
=
se, si
bi.be
=
zi, ze
c
z=z
t
za
^
ya
bi
=
dyi
Thus, we have :
Yuruna
Shipaya
English
pinapa
sinapa
comb
pe
se
in (post-
position)
abi
azi
back
abi
adyi
Indian
ca
ta
to go
za
ya
name
The grammatical divergences are insignificant : The imperative differs ;
the negative ka of Shipaya corresponds to Yuruna poga and teha ; Yuruna
regularly forms the future with the auxiliary verb ca (to go), whereas
Shipaya has recourse to adverbs.
The Arupai spoke Yuruna. They are in no way connected with the
Gurupd of the Tocantins River and the Urupd of the Gy-Parana.
Curuaya resembles Mundurucu as closely as Yuruna does Shipaya.
In some cases it preserves primitive Tupi forms better than Mundurucu.
The Tacunyape, according to the Jesuits, spoke the Lingua Geral,
whereas Von den Steinen credits them with a Tupi dialect appreciably
distinct from Yuruna. The present author found no TacMnya/>^-speaking
Indians, but three Neo-Brazilians, formerly resident in the area and during
the last 20 years of the last century in close contact with the tribe, dic-
tated 34 words and phrases, probably badly garbled. Though diverging
considerably from the standard Lingua Geral (final t's!), their Tupi re-
lationship is beyond doubt.
216 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
PREHISTORIC PEOPLES
Not only along the Xingu River and its larger affluents, the Iriri and
Fresco Rivers, but also along the smaller tributaries and subtributaries,
are found vestiges of a vanished population, whose culture differed from
that of the tribes found in the 20th century. The impression is that these
tribes formerly occupied all of the jungle region of the Xingu Basin,
These vestiges comprise :
(1) Dwelling sites found on points of solid land jutting out to the
edge of the water and easily recognized by their "black earth," a cultural
layer containing fragments of pottery and stone instruments.
The pottery can be distinguished at first sight from that of present-day
tribes. On the lower Xingu and lower Iriri Rivers it is rich in plastic
adornment, recalling somewhat the pottery of the Monte Alegre region
or even of the Tapajo. The pottery of the middle Xingu River and its
affluents is plainer, with little plastic or engraved ornamentation, and is
not uniform. On the Igarape das Flechas River, a tributary of the upper
Curua River, two small stone statuettes were found, one representing a
beetle, the other a man.
(2) Cemeteries. In the same "black earth" are found burial remains.
In the streets of Porto de Moz and Altamira, there may be seen the
mouths of urns covered by other vessels ; Panellas, a little above Altamira,
owes its name to such findings. In Porto Seguro, at lat. 7° 10' S., on a
permanent island of the Xingu River, funeral urns are found, and among
them superficially buried skeletons, lying stretched on their backs. Be-
cause of their size, all these urns could have served only for secondary
burials.
The presence of funeral urns distinguished the culture of the Xingii
Basin from that of the neighboring Tapajo and its affiliates.
(3) Petroglyphs. Along the Itamaraca and Cajituba Falls of the Volta
Grande do Xingu, at Caxinguba (lat. 5° 20' S.), and along the lower
Pacaja and upper Iriri, the figures of men, of animals, and of unknown
meaning are engraved on the surface of the smooth rocks. The most
important are those at Itamaraca, already known to the first Jesuit
missionaries in the 17th century, and one in Pacaja.
(4) Monoliths. In a stony stretch of the Xingu River, at lat. 7° 20' S.,
are eight more or less vertical small stone pillars, which are from 1 to 2
meters (3^ to 6j'2 ft.) in height and are roughly broken off but not
carved. There can be no doubt as to their artificial origin.
(5) At various points of the middle Xingu and of the lower Iriri Rivers,
there may be found about 50 piles of small stone blocks on the slabs of
the falls.
Stratification. — Downstream from Volta Grande, these remains must,
at least in part, be ascribed to the tribes which were encountered by the
Vol. 3] TRIBES OF LOWER AND MIDDLE XINGU— NIMUENDAJU 217
first explorers. Above this point, however, there is a hiatus between the
prehistoric and historic peoples. The Indians of today know nothing of
their origin. When the Yuruna, Shipaya, Arupai, and other tribes ap-
peared, the sedentary potters no longer existed, probably having been
annihilated by the expanding Northern Cayapo, who, coming from the
open country of the south, spread throughout the Xingu Basin. When
the Tupi tribes appeared, they found the Cayapo already there, for their
traditions always make them coexistent, no story accounting for their
appearance. These Tupi tribes, with the exception of the Curuaya, the
westernmost tribe, succeeded in penetrating and inhabiting these regions —
incidentally, with great difficulty — only because they were excellent boat-
men and occupied the islands of the great rivers, while the Cayapo made
only very primitive craft, which they used exclusively to cross the rivers.
HISTORIC TRIBES
These populations disappeared, and no chronicler has left us any
information of ethnographic value about them. The chart of Joannes
de Laet (1899), dated 1625, shows the presence of Apehou on both sides
of the mouth of the Xingu River; in the Tupi language of the "He-"
group, Apehou means "man" (apihaw). After 1639, the Jesuits began
to establish themselves on the Xingu River, but no one knows what Indians
composed their missions. The first missionary, Luiz Figueira, preached
in 1636 in Tabpinima (the modern Itapinimaf) to Indians "who were
not well versed in the Lingua Geral," i. e., Tupi-Guarani, and founded
the Xingu mission later called Itacuruga and today known as Veiros.
Shortly after, five more missions were established. Old chronicles and
maps (Heriarte, 1874 [written in 1662] ; Samuel Fritz, 1922 [map of
1691] ; Bettendorf, 1910 [written in 1699]) refer specially to three tribes:
the Coani, the Guahuara, and the Guayapi. The last two spoke the Lingua
Geral. These three tribes probably inhabited the western side of the
river. At that time the Parana of Aquiquy, an offshoot of the Amazon
that flows into the Xingu, a little above Porto de Moz, was known as
the "Coanizes River." The Guayapi were settled for a time at the be-
ginning of Volta Grande ; in 1763, they and the Yuruna were still reported
at Freguezia de Souzel. Most of this tribe, however, seems to have
emigrated earlier to the north of the Amazon River, probably by way
of Jary, and established themselves on the Oyapock River, where they
are mentioned after 1729. The Guahuara tribe in 1688 had 22 villages
in the interior of the central forests (sertao). From Bettendorf one gets
the impression that this tribe is identical with the Curabare or Curuaya.
In the 19th century, writers no longer spoke of Indians on the lower
Xingu River, because the survivors had fused with the semicivilized pop-
ulation which spoke the Lingua Geral.
218 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
THE YURUNA
Synonyms. — Juruna, Jurnima, Jiiruhuna, Geruna (from the Tupi-
Guarani, yuru, "mouth," plus una, "black") ; self -designation and Ship-
aya, Ytidya (meaning?) ; in Curuaya, Parawa-wad (parawa, "blue
macaw," plus wad, "people") ; in Arara, Paru-podeari (paru, "water") ;
in Cayapo, No-iren (no, "water").
History, territory, and number. — The first reference to this tribe is found in a
memorial written by Maciel Parente (1874) in 1626: ". . . the island between the
Pacaja branch [of Portel] and the Parnahyba [Xingu] . . . where are situated the
provinces of the Pacajaras [Pacaja], Coanapus [Anapu], Caraguatas [?], and Juru-
hunas." (Lat. 5°-6"' S., long. 53° W.)
Afterward, during the entire 17th century, we learn only of the more or less vain
attempts to reduce the Yuruna to the secular or clerical regime. The chronology of
these happenings is, however, very doubtful. An expedition from Sao Paulo
descending the Xingu was attacked on one of the islands of the river; only two
tame Indians escaped, the rest being killed. An expedition commanded by the
Captain-General of Gurupa, Joao Velho do Valle, composed of 100 musketeers and
3,000 tame Indians, was driven back with heavy losses. In 1655 or 1657, the Jesuits
were able to settle two large divisions of the tribe in villages in Maturu (Porto de
Moz) ; this work was, however, interrupted by the first expulsion of the order in
1661. Later (1665?) the Jesuits took some Yuruna and Tacunyape to the villages
of the lower Xingu, but the majority returned to the plains. In 1666 (?), the
Ynruna defeated another party. Between 1682 and 1685, the Yuruna and Tacunyape
defeated an expedition of tame Indians and Caravare {Curuaya) led by Gon^alvcs
Paes de Araujo, inflicting great losses. Then the Yuruna started out in 30 war
canoes to attack the civilized population. In 1691 or 1692, the Jesuits failed in an
attempt to reopen relations, the Yuruna killing every one sent out to them.
According to Father Jose de Mello Moraes (1860), the Yuruna were settled in
four small villages on islands of the Xingu, 30 leagues from its mouth. As he sets
the distance between the mouth and the first falls at 40 leagues, the Yuruna were
still 10 leagues below those falls. These tribes must have early abandoned this
place, however, retreating to above the falls of Volta Grande, where the Jesuits (in
the middle of the 18th century?) also had the mission of Anauera or Tauaquera,
a little above present-day Altamira. The missionaries were finally expelled by the
Indians, who were dissatisfied with their strictness.
During the following 150 years, there is no record of the tribes above Volta Grande,
which seem to have been left to themselves, protected by the dangerous falls and by
their reputation as ferocious cannibals ; as late as 1831, their attacks were feared
above Souzel. In 1841, the Vicar of this village, Torquato Antonio de Souza, made
a new attempt to establish a mission in Tauaquera, which, after a few years, seems
to have been abandoned.
In 1843, the Yuruna, by that time completely tame, were visited by Prince Adalbert
of Prussia, guided by Father Torquato. At that time they lived in nine small villages
between Tauaquera and a point 1 hour above Piranhaquara. There was no village
in Volta Grande, but the Yuruna paid friendly visits in Souzel and knew a little
Tupi-Guarani. Father Torquato reported their number as 2,000, which would
average 222 to each village ; possibly 200 would come nearer to the truth.
In 1859, the Government of the Province of Para initiated again the catechization
of the tribes above Volta Grande; however, the first attempt was a failure. At this
time the number of Yuruna, in three villages, was calculated at 235. This mission
was kept up until about 1880, with, it seems, little success. In a fairly detailed
Vol. 3] TRIBES OF LOWER AND MIDDLE XINGU— NIMUENDAJU 219
report by President Carlos de Araujo Brusque (1863), apparently based on informa-
tion given by the missionary, the total number of Yuruna in that year was 250.
When Von den Steinen descended the Xingu in 1884, this mission was no longer
in existence. Two hundred and five Yuruna inhabited five villages between "Pedra
Preta" (lat. 4° 40' S.), above Piranhaquara, and lat. 8' 30' S., a little below Pedra
Seca. These Indians still maintained their independence, and their original culture
was almost intact. The civilized population had not yet reached the mouth of
the Iriri.
When H. Coudreau visited the Xingu in 1896, the situation of the tribe was
completely changed. The 150 Yuruna, except for a group which had fled a little
beyond Carreira Comprida, had fallen into servitude to the rubber gatherers, whose
authority was extended to above the mouth of the Triumph River. Another small
group, led by Tuxaua Muratti, lived in Cachoeira Jurucua, in Volta Grande. The
two largest groups, working for Raymundo Marques in Pedra Preta and the
Gomes Brothers in Caxinguba (lat. 5" 20' S.) were composed, respectively, of 15 and
30 persons.
In 1910, a rubber-plantation owner crossed Carreira Comprida and settled a little
below Pedra Seca. The Yuruna refugees there came under his authority, tried to
flee upriver, but were pursued with firearms. Later, impelled by poverty and by the
attacks of the Cayapo, part of them returned, but in 1916 they once more fled to
the upper Xingu never to return. They settled near the mouth of a tributary of the
left bank, a little above the Martins Falls, where they were still found in 1928 by
G. M. Dyott's expedition. They number about 30 Indians. Probably there are also
survivors in Volta Grande of Tuxiua Muratii's family,
THE SHIPAYA
Synonyms. — Juaicipoia, Jacipoya, Jacipuyd, Javipuya, Acipoya, Achu-
paya, Achipaye, Axipai, Chipaya. Self-designation and Yuruna: Shipdy
(shipa, bamboo for the arrowheads, plus -i, suffix of the collective plural
of persons). In Arara: Chipdy. In Cayapo: No-iren {Yuruna). In
Kuruaya: Pardtvaivad (Yuruna).
Physically, culturally, and linguistically, the Shipaya are the closest
relatives of the Yuruna, being in many respects indistinguishable.
History, territory, and number. — The Shipaya (lat. 5° S., long. 55" W.) were
first made known to civilization by the Jesuit priest, Roque Hundertpfund, who (in
1750?) went up the Xingu and the "River of the Junmas" (Iriri), on a preaching
tour of the Curibary {Curuaya) and Jacipoya (Shipaya). Whereas the Yuruna
had for more than two centuries maintained themselves on a constant defensive
against civilized people, the Shipaya had until after 1880 remained quietly in their
own region without contacts with the civilized world. Kletke (1857), Brusque, and
H. Coudreau mentioned them, but did not visit them. The first scientist to have
direct and lengthy contact with them was Emilia Snethlage, in 1909, and especially
in 1913. In the latter year she set the total number of Shipaya at several hundred,
an estimate perhaps too high, since in 1918 only about 80 individuals were left.
Today there may be only about 30, scattered in Largo do Mutum and Pedra do
Cupim on the lower Iriri, and, mingled with a few remaining Curuaya, in Gorgulho
do Barbado, on the lower Curua, at about lat. 6° 30' S.
From remote times the Shipaya inhabited the islands of the Iriri River, from
the mouth of the Curua downstream. They never settled farther up, for fear of
Cayapo attacks. Later, about 1885, the Cayap6 forced them to evacuate their
653333—47—17
220 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
settlements at the great falls of the Iriri, between lat. 4° 50' and 5° S. and to
take shelter in the Curua, settling in the Gorgulho do Barbado, which they only
temporarily abandoned in 1913, after a bloody encounter with the rubber tappers.
Since then they have always been divided into two local groups : on the lower Iriri
and on the Curua.
THE ARUPAI
This tribe is only known through information given by other Indians,
as it became extinct before direct contact with civilized people. Prince
Adalbert von Preussen in 1843 heard of them as enemies of the Yuruna.
Brusque's report (1863) refers to them as Urupaya, and devotes a small
chapter to them, which I quote here, since it is the only literature on this
tribe.
This is a relatively numerous tribe, and although peaceable and relatively free
of bad habits, it is extremely distrustful and suspicious in its relations with in-
dividuals of other nations. Its habits and customs are the same as those of the
Tucunapeuas, with whom they have close bonds of friendship and trade. Since
the Tucunapeuas from time to time meet the caravans which go up the Xingu
River in search of natural products, it is they who obtain from these caravans
objects which they trade to the Urupayas in exchange for canoes, cotton thread,
hammocks and chickens. The Tucunapeuas, as intermediates in this trading, charge
their neighbors a higher price for the objects they sell them — ^principally agricul-
tural tools and beads highly prized for ornaments. In general Indians as soon
as they come into contact with civilized man and learn the use of firearms, do
everything in their power to get hold of these. The Urupayas, however, although
acquainted with firearms through the Tucunapeuas, are so terrified by them, that
they will not go near an armed man. They preserve a tradition from generation
to generation about an ancient encounter with men who shot at them, causing
a great slaughter, and this has instilled in them a great horror for firearms.
They inhabit the most remote islands of the Xingu that anyone knows of. They
cultivate manioc, cotton, and urucu. They are graceful, have beautiful bodies,
and a beautiful color, and they are clever and industrious. They obey a "tuxaua"
(chief) called Juacua. [Brusque, 1863.]
Since at that time the Xingu was already known at least as far as the
outh of the Fresco River, the Ariipai must have lived still farther up.
Approximately, lat. 7° S., long. 53° W.) Also Shipaya tradition places
.nem on the Xingu, just above the Yuruna. A Shipaya band, which
anciently migrated to the upper Xingu, fought with this tribe. Accord-
ing to another tradition, they received a few Shipaya who paid them a
riendly visit. Finally, during a feast, they were taken by surprise by
.le Yuruna. The men were killed or captured to be eaten afterward;
^le women and children were made prisoners. Some escaped upstream,
alto the sertao, and were never heard of again. The tribe no longer
jxisted when Von den Steinen descended the Xingii in 1884.
The name Arupai is derived from Shipaya "arupa" or "aguaye"
(Eichhornia sp.) plus "i," suffix of the collective plural for persons.
Vol. 3] TRIBES OF LOWER AND MIDDLE XINGU— NIMUENDAJU 22l
THE CURUAYA
Synonyms. — Kuruaya, Caravare, Curibary, Curuari, Curivere, Curu-
bare, Curabare, Curuahe, Curierai, Curuara, Curuaye, Curiuaye, Curueye,
Curiuaia, and Curuaya. Self-designation: Dyirimdin-id (?). In
Shipaya, Kiriwai (kiri, "parokeet," plus wa, "master," plus "i," suffix of
the collective plural). In Yuruna, Kiriwey (idem). In Mundurucu,
Huiaunyan; Wiaunen, linguistic variant.
History, territory, and number. — Between 1682 and 1685, the "Cara-
vares" are mentioned for the first time. At that time a certain Gon^alves
Paes de Aran jo, who lived among the tribe, went up the Xingu with a
few Portuguese, some tame Indians, and Caravare. The party fell into
an ambush of Yuruna and Tacunyape, who killed one Portuguese, all of
the tame Indians, and 30 Caravare. The latter, "showing an insuperable
courage and spirit rarely found among savages," managed to cover the
retreat of the Portuguese and to get them back safely to their own lands,
although Gonqalves Paes was severely wounded. Bettendorf says that the
"Curabares" spoke the Lingua Geral and had 20 villages in the sertao.
An attempt by Father Joao Maria Gersony to settle them down on the
Xingu (before 1688?) failed because of the influence of a Portuguese
named Manoel Paes (the same as Gonial ves Paes?), who employed them
in the extraction of cloves (Dicypellium caryophyllatum) . After Paes
had been killed by the Indians, the Curabare offered to go down by the
Tapajoz River. This seems to indicate that they were already at that
time established between the Xingu and the Tapajoz, although much
farther north than at the end of the 19th century. (Lat. 7° S., long.
55° W.)
Father Roque Hundertpfund (about 1750) went up the Iriri River on a 9-day
preaching tour to the Curibary (Curuaya) and Jacipoya (Shipaya). After a 9-day
journey upstream, the priest was still a long way from the mouth of the Curua
River, as it takes 18 days of rowing to get to the Curua from the Xingu. This
proves again that the Curuaya formerly lived farther to the north. They were
mentioned several times during the 19th century, but only through information
given by the Yuruna and the Tacunyape. According to H. Coudreau, who had no
direct contact with them, the tribe in 1896 inhabited the forest on the left bank (?)
of the Curua River. The traditions of the tribe, however, only mention excur-
sions to the west of the Curua, where they had bloody encounters with the Karuziad
(Mundurucii) . The so-called, "Parintintin," who until 1883 attacked the Neo-
Brazilians of the Jamaxim River, and who as late as 1895 went through the
"seringaes" of the Crepory and Caderiry Rivers, were probably none other than
bands of Curuaya.. This would also explain their having objects of civilized
origin when they first met the civilized people of the Iriri and Curua Rivers.
Beyond a doubt they themselves consider as their own territory the tributaries of
the right bank of the Curua River from lat. 6° 30' S. to 8° 50' S. (the bayous
Curuazinho, Bahu, and Flechas), where they were found in the 20th century.
When the Shipaya fled from the Cayapo in 1885, retreating to the Curua River,
they came into contact with them. By the time E. Snethlage — the only scientist
to visit them in their own territory — saw them in 1909 and 1913, they were al-
222 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
ready restricted to the Igarape da Flecha, and greatly influenced by the Shipaya.
In 1913, they had two "malocas" on the bank of the Flecha; a third maloca
12 km. away from the bayou, on the west side; and numbered about ISO. In
1919, they numbered about 120 and inhabited, in small groups of one to four houses,
the tributaries of the left bank of the upper Igarape da Flecha, at lat. 8° 30' S.
About a dozen of them lived among the Shipaya on the lower Iriri, and scattered
among Neo-Brazilians. Up to this time the Cayapd had respected the Curuaya
territory, but from 1918 on they began to extend their incursions to the Curua
River, and in 1934 they attacked and scattered the Curuaya. The largest group
of the Curuaya took the road from the mouth of the Riozinho do Iriri to the
Tapajoz ; other groups scattered along the middle Iriri. The remainder, except
for a few who stayed on the Iriri, live together with the last of the Shipaya
near "Gorgulho do Barbado" on the lower Curua. In all, there are perhaps less
than 30 of them.
THE TACUNYAPE
Synonyms. — Taconhape, Tacoyape, Taguanhape, Tacuanape, Tacun-
hape, Taconhape, Taconhapez, Tucunapeua, Peua. From the Tupi,
takiinya, "penis," plus "pe," pewa, "small and flat." In Yuruna, Tacun-
yape. In Shipaya, Tacunyape. In Kuruaya, Eidum, "honey-eater" (eid).
History, territory, and number. — In the second half of the 17th century, the west
bank of the Xingu above Volta Grande was known as the "side of the Jurunas,"
and the Iriri as "River of the Jurunas," while the east bank was known as the
"side of the Taconhapes." (Lat. 4° S., long. 53° W.) The "River of the
Taconhapes" was probably the present Pacaja, a tributary of the Xingu.
In 1662-63, the Jesuits first tried to catechize the Tacunyape, but three-fourths
of the Indians who had already descended the river returned to the sertao, be-
cause the agreement made with them had not been kept. In 1667, again a number
of Yuruna and Tacunyape were taken down to the Veiros mission, but these,
too, soon fled back to their own lands. The third attempt was made, shortly after-
ward, it seems, by Father Pedro Poderoso. He traveled up the Xingu for 15 days,
and, having passed the painted stones (of Itamaraca Falls), he arrived at
the landing place and village of the Tacunyape, where he was well received. The
Indians who had already been taken downstream the first time refused to listen to
any arguments, but many of the others followed the priest. Having been ill-
treated by the captain-general of Gurupa, however, they returned to the sertao
and never turned up again. When, in 1682, Father Antonio da Silva went to the
"River of Taconhapes" in order to bring down the tribe of Aracaju, he made no
mention of the Tacunyape.
In 1685, they joined with the Yuruna in the attack against Gongalves Paes and his
Curuaya, as well as in the subsequent revolt. Father Samuel Fritz's map (1691)
places the Tacunyape on the right bank of the Xingu, below the "Pacaya River,"
under lat. 3° S. In 1692, Father Jose Maria Gersony once more succeeded in gather-
ing together a large number of Indians of various tribes in Veiros, but, again,
the intervention of the captain-general of Gurupa destroyed the project, transferring
the Indians to Maturu (Porto de Moz) and other places.
In the 18th century, the Jesuits succeeded in settling Yuruna and Tacunyape in
the Tacuana (Tauaquera) mission, a little above present-day Altamira, and in
1762 and 1784 the Tacunyape are mentioned as among the Indians settled at Portel.
That part of the tribe which succeeded in keeping its independence seems to
have retreated to the middle of the Curua region; that would also explain their
friendship with the Curuaya. Shipaya tradition says that the Tacunyape joined
Vol. 3] TRIBES OF LOWER AND MIDDLE XINGU— NIMUENDAJU 223
them on the Iriri, having come from the upper Curua, and settled near them, on
an island a little below the mouth of the Rio Novo. Trouble with the CayapS
obliged them to return to their former settlement on the Xingu. There they were
defeated in 1842 by the Yuruna, losing 10 men. A year later Prince Adalbert found
their village, one day's journey above Tacuana, abandoned, and was unable to find
where the tribe had taken refuge. In 1859, the Tacunyape reappeared in large
numbers (500?), and the Government of Para decided to settle them in a new
mission, which was kept up for some 15 to 20 years. In 1863, the fevers preva-
lent on the Xingu had reduced them to 150. In 1884, Von den Steinen found 70
individuals, living on an island at lat. 3° 30' S., and the rest of the tribe in that
region became extinct within the next 15 years. In 1894, H. Coudreau still found
about 40, but that year the smallpox decimated them, and by the end of the century
the rest had succumbed to measles and catarrh. In 1919, the writer became
acquainted with a single survivor, who, reared among the Shipaya, had never learned
the language of his tribe.
The Tacunyape became extinct without ever having been studied. We have
merely scattered references to them in the writings of missionaries and of trav-
elers who never stayed among them.
Character. — The Tacunyape were considered the most tractable Indians of the
entire region. They received the Jesuits courteously; the chiefs and people went
out to meet them and made them sit in beautiful hammocks. They were indus-
trious, honest, and intelligent. It is noteworthy that, while other tribes were con-
tinually at war one with another, the Tacunyape were permanently at peace with
the Curuaya, Shipaya, Arupai, and Arara.
THE ARARA
Synonyms. — Apeiaca, Apiacd, Apingui, Pariri. Self-designation:
Opinadkom, Opinadkom (?). In Yuruna and Shipaya, Asipd ("prop"
or "support," on account of their tattooing design). In Curuaya, I-ami-
tug (i, "their," plus ambi, "upper lip," plus tug, "pierced"). In Cayapo,
Kube-nyde (kube, "Indian," plus nyoe, "woodpecker [?]").
History, territory, and number. — In 1853, there appeared for the first time on
the lower Xingu an unknown wandering tribe which the Neo-Brazilians henceforth
called Arara, no one knows why. Ehrenreich without further proof considered
them identical with their namesakes in the Madeira region, and even with the
Yuma, remnants of which tribe still inhabit the headwaters of the Parana-pixuna,
tributary of the right bank of the Puriis, at lat. 7° S.
The Yuruna informed me that these Indians formerly lived in a bayou, a tribu-
tary of the right bank of the Xingu, at the height of Carreira Comprida, perhaps
the present-day Igarape da Fortaleza (lat. 7° 30' S.). From there they had been
dislodged by the Cayapo. The latter, not the Suyd, are the "Autikas" to whom
the Arara make reference.
In 1861 and 1862, these Arara of the Xingu descended below Volta Grande,
where they were in peaceful contact with rubber tappers for some time.
At that time they numbered 343, not counting children. In December 1862, they
made a surprise attack upon the crews of two canoes of Yuruna, their capital
enemies, killing two and wounding others. A short time later they disappeared.
In 1884, Von den Steinen saw a captive of this tribe among the Yuruna of
the fifth village. At this time the Arara lived in the lands to the west of the
Xingu, from the mouth of the Iriri down. The inhabitants of one Arara village,
who had lived for a short time with their friends, the Tacunyape, had died off.
224 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
In 1894, H. Coudreau, too, was unable to find the tribe. About this time the
Arara disappeared from the left bank of the Xingu, and gathered at the head-
waters of the Curuatinga, main branch of the Curua River, which flows into the
Amazon above Santarem, where they were cruelly persecuted by rubber tappers.
Perhaps because of these persecutions, they began to work away from the left bank
of the lower Iriri. In 1897 they killed six rubber tappers in Nazareth, thereafter
disappearing from that bank for good. In 1914 there was still a dwelling with
a small clearing of theirs at the headwaters of the Curuatinga. The relations
between these Arara and the Shipaya were usually bad, with bloody fights and
kidnapping of each other's children.
A short time afterward the few surviving Arara moved upstream on the Iriri,
toward the lands on the left bank. In 1917 they vainly tried to make peace with
the rubber tappers a little above Sao Francisco. In 1918 vestiges of these Arara
were seen on the west bank of the Curua do Iriri, at lat. 7° 30' S., after which
no more was heard of them.
Another band of Arara, which numbered about 30 in 1917, settled on the right
bank of the Pacaja do Xingu River, at lat. 3° 40' S. They worked for Neo-
Brazilians of the Pacaja River, who also used them in warring against the Asurini,
as happened twice about 1922. There may possibly be some isolated survivor of
this group. There probably is still a small group of Arara on the upper Anapii,
whose upper course approaches the Pacaja do Xingu.
Western Arara.— In 1869, the first bands of this tribe, numbering
about 500 persons, appeared peaceably on the western bank of the lower
Tocantins, lat. 3° S., and were followed by other smaller groups. They
seemed to live to the west of the Trocara Mountains. "Authorities"
identified them as Miranya or Apiacd. In 1873, Bishop D. Macedo Costa
took some of them to the capital. In 1889, Ehrenreich observed some
of the survivors who were scattered through the settlements along the left
bank of the Tocantins, almost as far as Cameta. In 1896, Ignacio Moura
mentions a Captain Peter of this tribe, with his family, who served as a
guide in official prosecutions of hostile Indians. He is probably the same
man H. Coudreati saw the following- year, who lived with from 12 to 15
individuals in the Igarape Ararinha, a little below Breu Branco.
Coudreau calls these Indians Anembe, but the tattoo he describes and
the name of the chief make it seem probable that they were Arara. To-
day none are left.
In 1910 or 1911, another band of Arara Indians appeared under the
name Pariri. They were fleeing from the Paracana, a tribe probably of
Tupi speech living between the tributaries of the Tocantins and the
Pacaja de Portel, from Cachoeira Grande on upstream. The Pariri had
settled on the Iriuana, a tributary of the left bank of the Pacaja de Portel.
As the Paracana attacks did not let up, the rest of the tribe was o.bliged
to take refuge with the Neo-Brazilians of the region. In 1926 there were
still a half dozen of them ; in 1932, there remained only a boy and a girl
in the last stages of tuberculosis.
There is probably still another band of Arara on the Pacajahy River,
tributary of the left bank of the upper Pacaja de Portel. The Pariri ■
Vol. 3] TRIBES OF LOWER AND MIDDLE XINGU— NIMUENDAJU 225
called them Timirem or Cimirem (red). In 1913 or a little earlier, they
came into brief contact with some rubber tappers, after which nothing
more was ever heard of them.
THE ASURINI
Synonyms. — Asurini (from the Yuruna, asoneri, "red"), Assurini,
Assurinikin. In Yuruna, Surini. In Shipaya, Adyi kaporuri-ri (adyi,
"savage," plus kaporuri, "red," kaporuri-ri, "very red"). In Curuaya,
Nupdnu-pag (nupanu, "Indian," plus pag, "red"). In Arara, Nerimd
(?). In Cayapo, Kube-kamreg-ti (kube, "Indian," plus kamreg, "red,"
plus ti, "augmentative").
Territory, history, and number. — The Asurini appear for the first time in 1894,
when they attacked a Neo-Brazilian at Praia Grande, above the mouth of the
Pacaja do Xingu. In 1896 they twice attacked passing canoes in Passahy (lat.
3° 40' S.) and again at Praia Grande. In that year an armed band of 30, among
them the Tacunyape chief, Ambrosio, pursued the attackers, but did not dare to
attack their village. Not long after this event Ambrosio was killed and torn to
pieces by the Asurini. By that time they were known to have settled between the
Xingu and its tributary, the Pacaja. Toward the south they reached the boundary
of Morro Grande (lat. 5° S.), with their principal village in the Igarape Ipixuna (lat.
4° 40' S.), 5 days above its mouth. From then till the present, the Asurini have
remained absolutely inacessible, almost annually attacking whatever rubber tappers
venture into their territory. By 1917 their attacks on the right bank of the Xingu
had almost completely ceased, but their hostilities against the civilized population
of the Pacaja had increased. About 1922, the latter twice furnished the
Arara with arms and munitions for a war of extermination against the Asurini,
but with doubtful success. At least part of the Assurini remained at the head-
waters of the Branco River, tributary of the left bank of the Pacaja (lat. 4° S.,
more or less), and in 1932 they killed a Neo-Brazilian well beyond the former
limits of their territory, at the mouth of the Igarape de Bom Jarbim (lat. 5° 30' S.).
In 1936, the Gorotire-Cayapo, in their northward expansion, attacked and de-
feated the Asurini, as proved by the great number of Asurini arrows and orna-
ments in their possession when, a year later, they made peace with the Neo-
Brazilians. Survivors probably still exist today between the Xingu and Pacaja
and preserve their hostile attitude. The truth of the matter is that until today
no one has tried to pacify them.
H. Coudreau learned that the Asurini were known as "Deer Indians" on the
Tocantins, where they were peaceable, whereas those on the Xingu were hostile.
However, nobody ever heard of a tribe of that name on the Tocantins — not even
Coudreau himself, when surveying that river in 1897. The erroneously named
"Asurini" of the lower Tocantins are Paracana, who, since about 1926, have plagued
Neo-Brazilians on the left bank, between lat. 3° S. and 3° 40' S. Father VVilhelm
Schmidt's guess that they are a Carajd .yubtribe is inadmissible.
CULTURE
SUBSISTENCE ACTIVITIES
In clearings along the river, the Yuruna and Shipaya raised manioc,
maize, potatoes, cara, bananas, sugarcane, cotton, pepper, tobacco, gourds.
226 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
urucu, and genipa. From the manioc they made fermented flour toasted
in clay ovens set on three stones. According to Emilia Snethlage, the
Curuaya cultivated chiefly bananas, manioc, and other tubers in clearings
hidden in the forest far from their homes. When visiting the TacunyapS,
Father Pedro Poderoso was given roasted ears of maize, Brazil nuts, and
cakes of pounded maize which had been wrapped in leaves and cooked
under hot ashes. The Tacunyape cultivated manioc and cotton. The
Asurini also were farmers.
The Arara were less clearly horticultural. After their defeat and dis-
persal by the Cayapo, they became nomadic for some time, with unfavorable
consequences to their material culture, which originally may well have
been of a higher type before contact with Neo-Brazilians. When the
Arara first appeared on the Tocantins River, turtles formed their only
medium of exchange; Neo-Brazilians, therefore, deny that they had any
knowledge of farming. Perhaps some of the bands had really given up
planting altogether, but at the headwaters of the Curua do Norte was
found one of their farm clearings; moreover, they owned objects made
of cotton and, like their congeners both north and south of the Amazon,
they had words for "maize," "tobacco," "potatoes," "manioc," and "beiju."
Hunting and gathering were more important to the Curuaya than to the
Shipaya but fishing was less important. The Curuaya fished with a drug
made from a liana. The Yuruna, though expert canoemen, did little fishing
and, dreading to go inland, did little hunting. The Shipaya say that 10- or
12-year old Tacunyape boys were expert hunters, never in danger of
becoming lost in the forest.
Caimans and turtles were major foods of the Curuaya. For the Yuruna,
"tracajas" (a turtle species) and their eggs, even when containing em-
bryos, were an important food. Other foods included various wild roots
and Brazil nuts (Bertholletia excelsa). The Yuruna also collected the
"uauagu" nut {Orbignya speciosa). The Curuaya had great skill in ob-
taining wild honey.
The Yuruna and Shipaya cooked in pots set on three stones over the
fire. They cooked fish without first cleaning it. Utensils included pots,
gourds, cylindrical wooden mortars, which sometimes had a separate conic-
al base, a pestle with a head on each end, large canoe-shaped wooden
vessels, and spatulate bases of "anaja" palm leaves {Maximiliana
regia) used as basins. They ate together, everyone sitting around the
gourd which held manioc flour and the pot in which fish, hot with pepper,
had been cooked.
The only domesticated animals possessed by the Yuruna were dogs
and chickens. In Von den Steinen's time, 1884, they were not yet in
the habit of eating either chickens or eggs. In their huts the Yuruna
kept a great number of wild fowls and animals.
Vol. 3] TRIBES OF LOWER AND MIDDLE XINGU— NIMUENDAJU 227
DWELLINGS AND VILLAGES
Constant fear of being attacked by the Cayapo and other hostile tribes
forced the Yuruna to build their dwellings almost exclusively on the rocky
islets of the rapids, where they were safe from the Cayapo, who had no
skill in handling canoes. In 1843, the largest Yuruna village consisted
of six dwellings. In 1884, the seven different villages had eight, two,
seven, three, one, three, and two dwellings, respectively. The Shipaya
had an even stronger tendency to isolate their dwellings and, although
houses were sometimes quite near one another, more than two were
never built in the same place. The Shipaya of the Curua River inhabited
the right bank, which up to 1918 had not yet been invaded by the Cayapo.
On the Iriri River their houses were mostly built on the rocky islands
among the rapids and only exceptionally on the solid ground of the left
bank, which was less exposed to Cayapo attacks than the right bank. The
Tacunyape seem originally to have been a forest- not a river-dwelling
people, but after their return from the Iriri to the Xingu River they, like
the Yuruna, Shipaya, and Arupai, began to live on the islands. The
Curuaya of the 17th century were known as forest dwellers. In contrast
to the Yuruna and Shipaya, genuine boatmen who never strayed far from
the islands and banks of the Xingii and Iriri Rivers, the Curuaya avoided
the banks of the large rivers. The central maloca visited by Emilia
Snethlage in 1913 consisted of five houses, grouped irregularly around an
open yard.
The typical Asurini house was a long, rectangular, tent-shaped structure
without side walls ; one found at the headwaters of the Branco River was
180 palmos, i.e., 128 feet (39.4 m.) in length.
The Yuruna had two principal types of dwellings. One type had a
rectangular or square gable roof, the rafters being set right on the ground
and curved toward the top. Details are lacking. The other type was a rec-
tangular hut, the roof of which came close to the ground, with ridge
pole and perpendicular walls. The first of these dwellings was probably
the original type. The roof was well-made with "uauagu" or "anaja" palm
grass. The largest house visited by Von den Steinen measured 24 by
24 m. (78 by 78 ft.), and 6 m. (20 ft.) in height; others were only 2 by
4 m. (63^ by 13 ft.). Inside there was always a sort of loft, formed by
a scaffolding of poles, to store food supplies, weapons, and utensils. Some-
times this scaffolding hung from the roof.
Shipaya dwellings were similar to those of the Yuruna. In 1913,
Snethlage found the remains of a big, oval-shaped "maloca." The Tacun-
yape house Von den Steinen saw in 1884 was "in Yuruna style." The
original Curuaya house seems to have been elliptical, with a row of cen-
tral posts and two lateral rows on either side, decreasing in height. There
seems not to have been any space between the walls and roof ; flexible
rafters covered with straw gave the houses the look of "long hayricks
228
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS
[B.A.E. Bull. 143
rounded at the top," in Snethlage's description. At each end was a doot
closed with a rush mat.
Yurana, Shipaya, and Asurini household furniture consisted of benches
cut out of one piece of wood (fig. 25), with a circular or oval seat and
two sides forming legs, mats woven of palm leaves, baskets with oval
Figure 25. — Yuruna wooden stool. (Drawn from specimens, Museu Paraense Emilio
Goeldi, Belem.)
lids made of "uauagu" fiber, and cotton hammocks in which the Indians
slept at night and sat during the day. The Arara north of the middle
Iriri River in 1917 made palm-fiber hammocks. Ciiruaya dwellings were
not very clean, and all their utensils were dirty and carelessly made. Their
hammocks were small and made of palm fibers ; the technique used is not
known, but they were not woven. Their benches were crudely made
and painted. Prince Adalbert speaks highly of the order and cleanliness
of Yuruna dwellings.
DRESS AND ADORNMENT
When still entirely free, Arara men and women were completely
naked. In 1913, the Curuaya of the central malocas still were naked,
but those of the river malocas dressed like the Shipaya, that is, men wore
a belt of glass beads and covered the prepuce with a straw sheath, while
women wore a woven loincloth. Yuruna and Shipaya women wrapped
lengths of woven gray cloth around their waists ; these were open on one
side and reached almost to their ankles. Von den Steinen's prints show
some women also wearing a kind of cape with wide stripes, apparently
made the same way. Besides a belt, which seems originally to have been
of cotton, men wore only the truncate cone of dry "uauagu" fiber of the
Cayapo and Bororo type which covers the male organs. This was the
Yuruna style in 1884; 12 years later, their dress was more or less Neo-
Brazilian (Coudreau, H, 1897 c). Tacunyape women in 1884 were
wearing aprons of material bought from civilized people.
Yuruna, Shipaya, and Curuaya men's hair hung loose almost to their
waist, except when women parted it for them, making a pigtail which
they tied with a gray twist of fibers. On their foreheads, where the
hair-part started, there was a small circular red spot made with the pollen
Vol. 3] TRIBES OF LOWER AND MIDDLE XINGU— NIMUENDAJU 229
of sororoca (Ravenala guianensis). The Curuaya often wore bangs.
The women also parted their hair in the middle, allowing it to hang loose
behind or tying it in a loose knot. The Arara wore their hair, which
was brown and wavy, long behind ; women's braids often reached their
knees. The Asurini cut their hair ear-length. These tribes combed their
hair with small one-sided combs made from stems.
The Yuruna made beautiful headdresses of green feathers and diadems
of parrot and macaw feathers covered with small black feathers at the
base. The feathers were fastened between two bamboo hoops held to-
gether by an elastic net about an inch wide. The Shipaya and Curuaya
made men's diadems of cotton ribbons with feathers, sometimes fastened
to straw hoops; those of braided straw in the shape of a hat brim with
a tail of feathers or straw were used by both sexes. The Gorotire-Cayapo,
a Ge tribe (Handbook, vol. 1) were found to have feather ornaments
taken from the Asurini: beautiful diadems made of various overlapping
tiers of feathers mounted on cotton ribbons.
Yuruna men wore cotton bands 2 to 2}^ inches (5 to 6 cm.) wide
around their upper arms and ankles ; these were crocheted on by women.
At festivals, the anklets were often of beads. Narrower bands were also
worn by men just below the knees. Boys and men wore a very tight
beaded belt, preferably blue, from 4 to 6 inches (10 to 16 cm.) wide. Both
sexes from early childhood wore strings of heavy beads around their
necks and bandoleer-style, crossing in front and behind. Necklaces were
made of worked peccary teeth. The Shipaya and Curuaya made similar
bead ornaments, but showed more artistry in embroidering armbands and
forehead bands with beads. In 1913, the Curuaya, owing to their rel-
ative isolation, still wore more seed and nut than bead necklaces.
Arara ornaments in the museum at Para include: A diadem of parrot
and japu feathers, the base of which is covered with small feathers; a
braided cotton forehead band with small red feathers ending in two
long strings ; necklaces of black seeds and bones ; a pair of cotton arm
bands ; a pair of bracelets of armadillo tail ; and a necklace of armadillo
claws.
The Yuruna and Tacunyape anointed their bodies with a vegetable oil
for protection against mosquitoes. They kept the oil in small round
gourds decorated with painted or engraved maze designs. Asurini war-
riors stain their bodies with urucu, whence their tribal name. The
Yuruna, Arara, Pariri, and Shipaya, but not the Curuaya, tattooed
the face. Until 1843 one could observe the characteristic Yuruna tattoo-
ing to which this tribe owed its name in the Lingua Geral. Both men
and women made a black, vertical line down the middle of the face, from
the roots of the hair to the chin, and running around the mouth. This
tattooing was made by incising with animal teeth and rubbing in genipa
stain, the person's social importance being indicated by the width of the
230 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.B. Bull. 143
Stripe. According to Andre de Barros, the chiefs' faces were all black ;
Mello Moraes says that the "most distinguished" persons generally had
three stripes, the lateral ones being narrower. The width of the middle
stripe is given as from 1^ to 2^ inches (3.8 to 7 cm.) by various authors.
The tattooing was usually done in childhood. The Shipaya had ceased to
tattoo before permanent contact with Neo-Brazilians. The Arara tattooed
at puberty with genipa, making two vertical lines from the eye down to the
curve of the lower jaw. The Pariri tattooed with charcoal of rubber.
Yuruna men and Shipaya and Curuaya men and women pierced their
ear lobes. Ordinarily, they wore nothing in their ears but for festivals
they inserted a long red macaw tail feather, with small feathers hanging
from its point and surrounding the base. These feathers were kept in
tubes trimmed with small "mutum" feathers. The Arara pierced the
nasal septum as well as the earlobe. Curuaya women wore a stone tembeta
in the lower lip.
TRANSPORTATION
The Yuruna and Shipaya "uba" canoes are well adapted to the rough
water of the rapids. They are made of hewn cedar logs, usually hollowed
out by means of fire. The cross section is U-shaped, and there is a sort of
rectangular platform at bow and stern. Von den Steinen gives the follow-
ing dimensions of a Yuruna canoe: Length, 30 feet (10.6 m.) ; maximum
width, 3 feet (95 cm.) ; depth, 1^4 feet (39 cm.) ; thickness, 1 inch (25
mm.) ; platform at the bow, 1 foot 10 inches by 1 foot 5 inches (57 by
44 cm.) ; platform at the stern, 3^4 by 3 feet (1 by 0.9 m.). (Steinen got
the measurements of the platforms reversed ! ) . These canoes can easily
carry 10 people without baggage. They usually have an awning of rush
mats from the middle to the rear, fastened to arched poles. The boats are
punted by means of poles and steered by a paddle about 4^ feet (1.45 m.)
long. The handle of the paddle, which ends in a somewhat convex cross
bar, measures 2 feet (62 cm.) ; the blade widens toward the blunt end, and
sometimes bears the painted maze design.
It seems established that the Arara had no form of canoe when first met.
They lived on and roamed over dry land, only exceptionally appearing on
the banks of the great rivers. The Asurini also lacked canoes. The
Curuaya, living in the heart of the forests, paid little attention to boating.
Their original canoe was made of jutahy bark. Later, they made this
type only in emergency and constructed crude imitations of the Shipaya
masterpieces.
Among devices for land transportation, the Museum at Para has an
Arara carrying bag of interlaced cords made of palm fibers.
MANUFACTURES
Weaving. — Since the Jesuit period, Yuruna women have been famous
for their skill in spinning cotton "as fine as hair." They wove hammocks
Vol. 3] TRIBES OF LOWER AND MIDDLE XINGU— NIMUENDA.TU 231
on bamboo frames, measuring 6}^ by 9}i feet (2 by 3 m.). Two threads
guided by a little piece of wood were passed horizontally through the
vertical threads of the warp ; the weaving technique is not clearly described
but the product was unquestionably cloth. In order to tighten or separate
the horizontal threads, they used a small toothed wooden instrument.
Pottery. — Yuruna pottery was simple (fig. 26, b, d), without painted
or plastic decorations, except for the occasional addition of two small
excrescences on diametrically opposite sides of the vessel edge. The
principal form, used to hold water and fermented drinks, is a round jar
with a short neck. Shipaya ceramics are coarser than those of the Yuruna.
Figure 26. — Pottery from the lower Xingii. a, Arara; h, d, Yuruna; c, Curuaya.
(All 2/9 actual size.) (Drawn from specimens, Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi,
Belem, and Nimuendaju and Snethlage collections.)
Huge vessels 2^ feet (69 cm.) in diameter and equally high are used for
fermented drinks. Exceptional pots were painted inside and outside.
Curuaya pots resemble those of neighboring tribes, but the ware is inferior
and vessels are small and plain. The characteristic form is a small,
globular jar (fig. 26, c), apparently made in imitation of the capsule of the
Brazil-nut tree. Arara pottery is very crude (fig. 26, a).
Miscellaneous. — The Shipaya made "half -gourds" (cuias) from the
cuiete and Lagenaria. These are painted black inside and outside and
sometimes have maze designs. The decorations are sometimes incised on
the shell of the green fruit.
Other containers include an Arara vessel for dye made of the dorsal
carapace of a turtle and a rectangular palm-straw basket with a lid and
upright sides.
232
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS
[B.A.E. Bull. 143
The Yuruna made candles of little wooden sticks wrapped in cotton and
soaked in oil.
Weapons. — The principal weapon was the bow and arrow. The club
was known only to the Shipaya and to the Asurini (fig. 27, c) . The Shipaya
attached a short cylindrical club to the wrist by means of a loop. A club of
k
b 1^' ^
c 'U
Figure 27. — Asurini weapons, a, Bow; b, hafted stone ax; c, wooden club, {.ui-dwu
from specimens, Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Belem, and Estevao collection.)
the Asurini in the Para Museum is 2^ feet (85 cm.) long, the handle
covered with fibers of two colors interwoven with little skill, the end
rounded and flattened, the blade 3 inches (8.5 cm.) wide by 1 inch (2.5
cm.) thick, and both edges cut. The blade is slightly curved, almost like
a machete. The cudgels found in the possession of the Yuruna were
apparently of Cayapo origin.
The Yuruna bow was of black wood, rectangular in cross section, over
6^ feet (2 m.) long, and notched at the ends to hold the cord. Ctiruaya
and Shipaya bows were similar. The Arara made powerful bows 4]/^
feet (1.3 m.) long with a flattened elliptical cross section about 1^ inches
(4 cm.) wide. Asurini bows (fig. 27, a) in the C. Estevao Collection in
Para are made of paxiuba palm, SYz to Sy^ feet (1.62 to 1.67 m.) long.
They are distinguishable from all other South American bows by their
exaggerated width, 2^ to 3 inches (6 to 7 cm.) ; the maximum thickness
is Yi inch (1 cm.). The ends are notched to hold the cord, one end of
which has a ring to slip over the lower tip of the bow. The upper half or
third of the bow is almost always wound with dark and white cotton
threads, while the lower part is sometimes covered with hawk down glued
on.
Yuruna, Curuaya, and Shipaya arrows are made of camayuva {Guadua
sp.) and have bridged feathering. The Asurini and Arara used sewed
feathering. The most common point is a lanceolate blade of bamboo or
bone. Asurini arrows in the C. Estevao collection range from 4 feet 1
Vol. 3] TRIBES OF LOWER AND MIDDLE XINGU— NIMUENDAJU 233
inch to 5 feet 1 inch (125 to 157 cm.) in length. The shaft is of camayuva;
the heads are: (a) of bamboo, 1 foot (32 cm.) long by 1^^ inches (4 cm.)
wide; (&) of bone, 6 inches (15 cm.) long by ^ inch (1.6 cm.) wide, with
a lateral barb; (c) of wood, imitating (a) and (&), or of square or tri-
angular cross section ; (d) with four sharp wooden points. The feathering
is sewed. The feathers, usually a hawk and a macaw feather, are very long,
up to l}i feet (40 cm.). The point where they are tied on is sometimes
decorated with four overlapping rows of short feathers, glued on, three
rows of yellow feathers, one row of red. The shaft of the arrow, in the
space between the vanes, is sometimes covered with an interweaving of
very fine black and white fibers or cotton threads of two colors with an
equally ornamental effect. Some arrows have a "tucuma" nut inserted at
the point where the head is fastened into the shaft. This nut makes no
sound and apparently serves only to keep the arrow from penetrating too
far. The Shipaya used a fish arrow having a long cylindrical point of
paxiuba palm wood and an incendiary war arrow with a piece of jutahy
resin in the slit end.
The Arara used a lance with a long bamboo point.
An Arara ax which I observed in 1917 north of the middle Iriri River
had a stone head, with only the cutting edge polished. The head was held
in a cavity in the thickest part of a wooden handle by means of wax and
string lashing. A similar Asurini ax in the Para museum has the head
fitted so nicely into the cavity that an adhesive and lashing are unnecessary
(fig. 27, b).
The Arara made a chisel of a haf ted agouti tooth.
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION
In 1913, the Curuaya still had a village chief, although an intelligent in-
terpreter who had a monopoly on their communication with Neo-Brazil-
ians enjoyed much greater prestige. Emilia Snethlage believes that chief-
tainship originally passed from father to son. By 1913, the Curuaya were
becoming rubber collectors ; by 1919, they were mere serfs of a Neo-
Brazilian boss.
A certain solidarity united the Shipaya as against other tribes, but there
was no tribal organization. From the beginning of the 20th century they
seem no longer to have had chiefs (i-ama; i, reverential prefix) and noth-
ing is known of their ancient functions. On war expeditions an experi-
enced man was chosen ad hoc to take command.
The Yuruna were divided into villages, each composed of a number of
families (patrilineal?). A comparison of Von den Steinen's and H.
Coudreau's data indicates that these families or communal households
were probably relatively stable. Chieftaincy descended from father to
son ; the war leader, however, was not the village chief but a medicine man.
234 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
Until shortly before Von den Steinen's expedition there seems to have
been a supreme chief of the tribe, who lived at Piranhaquara.
Among the Shipaya, monogamy is the rule; bigamy a rare exception.
Divorce is uncommon. The couples usually live in perfect harmony and
treat each other on equal terms. Both men and women participate in
religious ceremonies. Children are treated with an almost exaggerated
tenderness, and are rarely given away to civilized people. Infanticide is
considered a sin that provokes the anger of the god Kumapari, who ex-
pressly forbade it. Formerly, there existed a relationship of solidarity very
formally entered into by two individuals, maitumas, of their own free will.
The alliance was sealed at the time of the zetabia ceremony in front of
Kumapari's statue. The two maitumas were never to quarrel, should
converse with each other respectfully, and should help each other
during the remainder of their lives. As long as the Shipaya kept their
identity as a tribe, they were known for their honesty.
Among the Yuruna, polygyny (of the chiefs?) was practiced, a man
having up to three wives. Since the 17th century, the Yuruna have been
proverbially jealous of their wives; the uprising of 1666 was due to the
a.buses of the chief of the expedition in this respect. Von den Steinen
noted the harmony prevailing between spouses. Parental love is proved
by the breaking of relations with the mission when the missionary sent
some children as hostages to Belem. One day Von den Steinen's expedi-
tion had to stop and camp long before the scheduled hour in order to
prepare the food for the Yuruna guide's little daughter, who was feeling
hungry. Naughty children were not beaten, but their parents treated them
with ostentatious contempt until they mended their ways. Von den
Steinen observed that on a canoe trip a father left his disobedient little
daughter at the edge of the river, forcing her for a while to follow the
canoe on foot with great difficulty.
The old reports describe the Yuruna as brave and warlike, and both
sexes as hard workers. The women spun and toasted flour even during
drinking sprees. Brusque's record (1863), however, calls them lazy,
indolent, and thievish. Von den Steinen found them affable, given to
laughter, not thievish, and willing to help with the work. He observed
the weeping salutation which lasted about a minute and did not provoke
tears. When subsequently talking to the host, the visitor stood beside
him without looking at him, but staring straight into space. Visitors
announced their arrival by blowing a horn.
Among the Curuaya, monogamy was the rule ; bigamy was rare, accord-
ing to Emilia Snethlage, chiefly because of poverty and the lack of
women, although polygyny was the theoretical ideal. Families are ap-
parently patrilineal. There were indications of the couvade.
Vol. 3] TRIBES OF LOWER AND MIDDLE XINGU— NIMUENDAJU 235
WARFARE
There are no reports of intratribal conflict, but all these peoples were
intermittently at war with their neighbors, though the Shipaya and Arara
remained at peace with the Tacunyape. In the 17th century, the Curuaya
are mentioned as enemies of the Yurima and Tacunyape ; in 1843, as
enemies of the Yiiruna, Shipaya, and Piapdy. The Asurini and Ta-
cunyape were at war recently. The implacable enemy of all these tribes
was the Northern Cayapo, who, during the 18th century, made the
Yuruna seek shelter in the rocky islands of the rivers and cut off all com-
munications between the Yuruna and the tribes of the upper Xingu
River until the beginning of the 20th century. We have already seen
how the Curuaya succumbed to the Cayapo in 1934. The Shipaya had
also been constantly menaced by the Cayapo and earlier by the Mundu-
rucu and the now extinct Piapdy. The Shipaya had been alternately at
peace and at war with the Yuruna, Arupai, Curuaya, and Arara but
finally effected an alliance with the Yuruna and Curuaya, and, despite
occasional flare-ups, intermarried and lived together with them. When
at peace with the Yuruna, Shipaya groups sometimes settled among
them on the Xingii. Von den Steinen's vocabulary of the language of
the "upper" Yuruna is almost pure Shipaya, and Coudreau's map shows
an old Shipaya maloca near that of the Yuruna of Jurucua Falls at Volta
Grande.
The Tacunyape were never at peace with the Cayapo. The Cayapo,
while pursuing the Shipaya, attacked them at the time when they lived
on the Iriri, and a Tacunyape raid against their assailants failed. A
strange episode is told about this expedition ; the chief of the Tacunyape,
mortally wounded by an arrow, requested that one of his warriors divide
his body at the waistline with a big knife, so as to have to carry only
the upper part of his body in the retreat to their village, leaving the nether
part on the battlefield.
Cannibalism. — Since the 17th century, the Yuruna have been accused
of cannibalism, and the 18th-century Shipaya were known as cannibals.
The other tribes did not eat human flesh.
Father Joao Daniel, whose tendency to exaggerate makes him an un-
trustworthy witness, states that the Yuruna kept human fat in kettles
for seasoning their food. He also cites cases of these Indians killing
people in order to prepare provisions for a trip. The writer also doubts
some stories told by the Shipaya about such customs of the Yuruna. It
is probable, however, that cannibalism really existed among the Yuruna,
more or less under the same conditions as among the Shipaya.
Father Joao Daniel (around 1750) called the Shipaya "warlike, cruel,
and cannibalistic as these Yuruna," and doubtless before closer contact
with Neo-Brazilians (around 1885), they were cannibals. Their last vie-
653333— 47— 18
236 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
tims may have been the Cayapo during the conflicts which resulted in the
abandonment of the tribal dwellings on the middle Iriri. (See above.)
Except for a few cases where vengeance was the motive, cannibalism al-
ways took the form of a sort of communion with their national god, Kuma-
pari, now transformed into the jaguar with an avowed man-eating pro-
pensity. Through his medicine man, he used to manifest his desire to eat
the flesh of the Shipaya^s enemy. The tribe then organized an expedition
against one of the hostile tribes, the main purpose being to take one of its
members alive. The prisoner was taken to the maloca, where he was very
well treated. Beverages were prepared, and after the guests had arrived,
the prisoner was killed by arrows in the yard, then scalded, quartered,
and the pieces cooked or roasted on a rustic grill (moquem). A large pot
full of human flesh and drink was then covered with rush mats and placed
near the caves for Kumapari. Of those attending the feast "whoever
wished" also ate of the enemy's meat. The killer was not subject to the
purification prescribed for nonritual killing.
War trophies. — Trophy taking was more common than cannibalism.
The Yuruna kept the skulls of their slain enemies. In the uprising of
1686, "they carried as a standard the head of a certain Sergeant Antonio
Rodrigues, whom they had killed." Sometimes these skulls served as
resonators for their war trumpets. They made flutes of the enemies' bones
and used the teeth to decorate their ear lobes. The Shipaya decapitated
a slain foe, carefully picked the flesh from the skull, fastened the maxillary
on with wax, and filled the orbits with wax, placing small bone disks in
their centers. The killer hung the trophy in a basket from the ridge pole
of his dwelling. He extracted the teeth and made them into necklaces for
himself and wife or used them to decorate earplugs. The Arara took the
following trophies : The scalp (fig. 28, c), including the ears, stretched in
a hoop; the skin of the face (fig. 28, b), similarly stretched and trimmed
with tassels of beads, with a loop of beads for hanging; the skull (fig.
28, a) , cleaned and decorated with two macaw tail feathers inserted behind
the zygomata and with cotton fluff; and the teeth made into necklaces
(fig. 28, d). It is reported that they stripped off the entire skin of one
of their dead enemies. The Cumaya took trophy heads. In 1919, they
told me that they had carefully preserved the skulls of the Shipaya killed
in their last conflict with them, and that until recently they had danced
with them.
ESTHETIC AND RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Drinking festivals. — The Yuruna attached great importance to a drink,
malicha, made from manioc, fermentation of which was produced by
women chewing part of the mass. Sometimes bananas were added. It was
allowed to ferment in a canoe set up in the festival house and covered
with banana leaves. Drinking parties often lasted for days. During such
Vol. 3] TRIBES OF LOWER AND MIDDLE XINGU— NIMUENDAJU 237
J.flnqlc'n
Figure 28.— Arara trophies, a, Skull, ornamented; b, skin of human face with open
mouth; c, human scalp; d, human-tooth necklace. (Drawn from specimens, Museu
Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Belem.)
238 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
an occasion, Von den Steinen saw a gaudily adorned personage who al-
ternately played the pari-tadada and sang, and also served drinks to the
others. The Yuruna are not quarrelsome when they drink; they sing
and talk to themselves, walking up and down, and pay no attention to one
another.
From early times, the Shipaya too were considered heavy drinkers.
At any celebration, even a religious one, enormous quantities of fermented
drink were never lacking. The Shipaya never became belligerently drunk,
but behaved like the Yuruna. After contact with Neo-Brazilians, how-
ever, they became sadly addicted to rum. The Curuaya were also pas-
sionately fond of fermented drinks.
The Yuruna smoked tobacco in cigarettes rolled in the thin skin of the
tauri (Couratari sp.).
Musical instruments. — Curuaya musical instruments include small
panpipes, bone flutes, and two kinds of the "tore" clarinet.
Yuruna musical instruments were: The gourd rattle (maraca), with
a plume of macaw tail feathers at the tip; a signaling horn made of a
gourd ; a horn of thick bamboo with lateral opening for blowing and with
loops and tassels of feathers ; the same with sounding box made of a gourd
or a human skull ; small panpipes ; a bone flute ; Von den Steinen's "bas-
soon," perhaps corresponding to the Shipaya "takari" (Karl G. Iziko-
witz's "tore clarinet") ; a great wooden trumpet (pari-tadada) used at
drinking sprees with lateral opening for blowing and a bamboo reed
from 5.7 to 6.1 feet (175 to 187 cm.) in length.
Shipaya dancing and music were always linked. Some dances imitated
certain animals in pantomime. During their sprees, they would walk up
and down in pairs or alone, singing and playing the flute with an unearthly
din.
Besides the large flutes for the "zetabia" ceremony and the whistles
for the dance of souls, the Shipaya had the same instruments as the
Yariina : a bone flute, panpipes, a signal horn, a large conical wooden
trumpet, painted with the maze design (pari-tadada), a small four-holed
flute, and the "takari." This last requires four players, for it has a scale
of four notes and each player has only one note to play. The melody
results from each player's playing his note as required. The quartette
forms a circle, each person holding the "takari" with his right hand, and
placing his left on his neighbor's shoulder. While playing, they slowly
move round and round.
The gourd rattle, identical with the Yuruna form, is also used only by
the medicine man.
Art. — The Yaruna and Shipaya (fig. 29) used the maze design on
their engraved gourds, but the former did not paint it on their bodies with
genipa, generally limiting themselves to stripes on their forearms and legs.
Vol. 3] TRIBES OF LOWER AND MIDDLE XINGU— NIMUENDAJU 239
SO that, artistically, body decoration was much inferior to that of the
Shipaya. Yuruna artists were generally women. There are numberless
variations of the maze motif with which they cover objects and especially
the body. Frequently, these body designs, used on festive occasions,
are so fine and intricate that they can only be seen at close range. Besides
the maze motif, there are also curvilinear patterns.
The most important Shipaya sculptural products, statues of mythological
personages, do not show great development in this type of work. Little
figures of armadillos and other animals are carved from a palm nut
(Bactris sp.) and made into necklaces. Wooden spoons sometimes appear
in artistic and original forms, the handle ending in the form of a clenched
ri[min
[\
\r
u
IT
Zl
U^^^i-
l^^^rL-
J fln^l'ni
Figure 29.—Shipaya painted decorations. (Drawn from sketch by Curt Nimuendaju.)
240
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS
[B.A.E. Bull. 143
fist, etc. In 1896, H. Coudreau found in an abandoned Shipaya tribal
house a number of small carved, wooden figures representing animals, a
canoe, and other objects. These were well done. (See figs. 30, a, d, j;
31, for similar Yuruna specimens.).
J.Arv<ilin-\
Figure 30. — Lower Xingu wood carvings and manufactures, a, d, f, Yurima carved
toys ( ?) ; h, c, Yuruna and Arara wood and cord combs; e, Yuruna carding comb.
(Drawn from specimens, Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Belem.)
Vol. 3] TRIBES OF LOWER AND MIDDLE XINGU— NIMUENDAJU 241
%
a b
Figure 31. — Yuruna carved wooden toys (?). (Drawn from specimens, Museu
Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Belem.)
RELIGION AND SHAMANISM
The principal figure in Shipaya religion is the god Kumapari, son of
another god of the same name, and father of Kunyarima, whose uterine
brother was Arubiata. Kumapari stole fire from the tapir hawk and
created man from arrow-reeds, making the Shipaya first of all, whence his
title of Sekarika (Our Creator). The brothers carry out a series of diffi-
cult tasks, by order of Kumapari, who in these episodes bears the title
Marusawa (Tupi: morubisawa, "chief?"). In these adventures Kun-
yarima gives proof of intelligence and courage, while Arubiata tries in
vain to imitate him, always failing and saved only through his brother's
intervention. Kumapari, angry with all men, goes away down the Xingu,
to the north, where, at the end of the world, sky and earth meet. At first
of human shape, he now has the form of an old jaguar. He has turned
into the god of war and cannibalism, and is the object of a real cult. Con-
secrated to Kumapari were: medicine men to whom he would directly
manifest himself ; their helpers ; and the god's wives, who never married
men and had certain religious duties.
Sometimes Kumapari or the two brothers ordered statues (upasi) to
be made: cylindrical posts with human heads carved and painted on
them by the demon's wives. A ceremony (zetabia) would take place in
front of the statues with two large flutes of thick bamboo, held by these
women.
Among the many other gods or spirits of the earth and sky, the most
important are the terrible Apu-sipaya (Jaguar of Heaven), the aquatic
demon, Pai, and the Great Snake, Tobi, from whose ashes sprang all
cultivated plants. Respect for these spirits, the help they can give men,
and fear of their anger and malevolence constitute, together with magic
and the worship of souls, Shipaya supernaturalism.
The soul is composed of two parts: the awa, which after death turns
into a specter that frightens but does not kill people ; and the isawi, which
242 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
inhabits certain large rocks or hills inside which it lives a life similar to
that of the living. Jointly, all the isawi are called i-anai (i, reverential
prefix, plus ana, plus i, suffix of the collective plural).
From time to time, the i-anai again desire to be among the living and
advise the medicine man, who then orders an i-anai karia (feast of the
souls of the dead). The ceremonies only take place at night and last 8
or more nights. One by one, the souls enter the medicine man in order
to dance and drink with the living. The medicine man appears from
the interior of a dark house bringing the jugs of fermented drink, which
are wrapped up closely in a rectangular cape of heavy coarse cotton, woven
in the "double thread" technique. These threads are covered with cotton-
wool, so that the cape resembles a sheep's fleece. The cape is fastened
to a hoop worn on the head, and from which hang thick black fringes
hiding the wearer's face. A wreath of parrot feathers decorates the head,
and the bottom of the cape is bordered with wing and tail feathers of
the mutum, which touch the ground. The wearer is completely covered,
suggesting a white pillar. The soul is summoned with shouts and the
music of two flutes, a single and a double one, fastened together with a
thread. It then enters the circle formed by women and men, who welcome
it with laughter. In a nasal voice, the soul sings a short verse several
times, following the circular dance of the others, then disappears into
the house, yielding its place to another soul. This ceremony ends with
a great drinking orgy. Throughout the celebration the participants refrain
from sexual intercourse. The souls of those recently dead never appear
on such occasions. The festival ends with the medicine man's ceremonially
restoring to each participant his isawi, of which the souls had deprived
him, for its loss would spell death.
The medicine man is, above all, the intermediary between the laity and
the gods, the spirits, and the souls of the dead. The prerequisite for the
profession is a tendency toward dreams and visions, a good teacher
subsequently instructing the tyro how to develop and use his gift.
Magic, that is, the art of curing and of causing illness, as well as of
securing special advantages, is a secular science. It is in no way con-
nected with the spirits and the souls of the dead, although exercised by
the medicine man, who heals by sucking and massaging, removing harm-
ful influences from the patient's body, and transferring them to a green
branch (compare Yuruna) ; he also blows tobacco smoke over the patient.
The Yuruna believed in the god the Shipaya call "Kumapari," with
whom some of their medicine men had direct communication, and also
in the culture hero Kunyarima. One of their ceremonies, observed by
Von den Steinen, is in every detail identical with the Shipaya Dance of
Souls (i-anai Karia). The souls, like those of the Shipaya, lived in
certain large rocks, safe from high water, such as Pedra Preta, Pedra de
Caxinguba, and Pedra Seca, to which due reverence was given. What
Vol. 3] TRIBES OF LOWER AND MIDDLE XINGU— NIMUENDAJU 243
Kletke says about a benevolent diety and a malevolent deity seems not
trustworthy.
The medicine man cured by violent massaging, forcing the pathogenic
substances from the body into green branches, which were then carefully
taken outdoors. Meanwhile, the patient remained lying in his hammock.
At a Curuaya feast, E. Snethlage saw two posts carved with human
faces similar to the Shipaya statues. It is not known whom they repre-
sented. The medicine man's hammock was hung between these posts,
and behind them was the canoe with the fermented drink. In the Curuaya
mythology there are two pairs of brothers, Witontim and Aizau, whose
parents are called Karu-pia and Imiriwon, and Kabi-sau (kabi, "sky")
and Zaizu-sau (zaizu, "armadillo"). The significance of the so-called
"karuara" (in the Lingua Geral), cotton tufts hanging from the ceiling
in small vases or baskets, is not certain. Emilia Snethlage says that they
contained pathogenic substances the medicine man, an important person
in the village, extracted from the body of patients. In his house there
was a room walled with bark and closed to visitors, in which he effected
his cures. Snethlage assumes an astral cult, a supposition the writer was
unable to confirm.
Nothing is known concerning animism or burial practices.
The Shipaya say that the Tacunyape celebrated the dance of souls. The
cape worn for the dance was of palm fiber, closed all around, with an
opening for the head. The souls of the dead came from the forest to
participate in the drinking, but did not sing or dance with the living.
Shipaya and Yuruna dead were interred inside the house, the hammocks
of the closest relatives being hung near the burial. Later, the bones were
removed, cleaned, and put away in a basket, which was hung under the
ridge pole. The writer does not know what was finally done with them.
The closest women relatives cut their hair as a sign of mourning.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adalbert von Preussen, 1849, 1857; Adam, 1896; Bettendorf, 1910; Brusque, 1863;
Coudreau, H., 1897 c; Daniel, 1841; Ehrenreich, 1891 a, 1895, 1897 a; Fritz, 1922;
Heriarte, 1874; Kletke, 1857; Krause, 1936 b; Laet 1899; Macedo Costa, 1875; Maciel
Parente, 1874; Martius, 1867; Meyer (see Krause, 1936 b) ; Moraes, 1860; Moura,
1910; Nimuendaju, 1914 b, 1921-22, 1923-24, 1929 b, 1930 a, 1932 a, 1932 b,
mss.; Snethlage, 1913, 1920-21; Snethlage and Koch-Griinberg, 1910; Steinen, 1886.
THE MAUE AND ARAPIUM
By Curt Nimuendaju
THE MAUE
INTRODUCTION
Territory. — The Maue territory, a region of solid land, was bounded
by the lower Tapajoz, the Amazon, the bayou of Uraria, the bayou of
Ramos, lat. 5° S., and long. 58° W. (map 1, No. 1 ; map 4). On the
banks of the Tapajoz River and the bayous, the tribe lived only tempo-
rarily under the influence of civilized people.
Bettendorf (1910) does not mention the name Maue, but writes of
Andira and Maragud in the region where the Maue are mentioned a little
later. These two groups are probably local Maue subdivisions. The
Andira undoubtedly inhabited the Andira River, which up to the present
time is a Maue region.
History. — The Jesuits came into contact with these tribes after the Mission to
the Tupinamharana was founded in 1669. In 1698, the Andira welcomed P. Joao
Valladao as a missionary. It is impossible to locate the Maragm accurately, but
they were on a lake between the Andira and the Abacaxy Rivers, probably on the
lower Mauhes-assu, which widens out to form a sort of lake. They had three
villages, near one another (Bettendorf, 1910, p. 36). In 1692, after they had killed
some White men, the Government declared "just war" against them, which was
unsuccessful, as the Indians were forewarned and scattered, only a few offering
any resistance. In 1696, the Jesuits took up residence among the Maragud, 100
of whom were transferred in 1698 to the village of Guama, near Belem. The
Maragud are not mentioned in the 18th century.
The Mabue {Maue) appear for the first time on P. Samuel Fritz's map (1691)
of the Amazon, which places them just west of the Tapajoz, at lat. 3° 30' S.,
the present habitat of the Maue. The Maragud were south of the Amazon, op-
posite the Trombetas River, and the Andira on a water course which might have
been the Ramos Bayou.
According to Father Joao de Sao Jose (1847, p. 101), in 1762 the Mague
lived below the falls of the Tapajoz River, 4 leagues (about 11 miles) inland. The
Sao Jose (Pinhel) and Santo Ignacio (Boim) Missions on the Tapajoz were
settled with Mague. In 1762, the Indians of the latter mission killed the director
of the village. When they also murdered some merchants, the governor, Ataida
Teive, in 1869 forbade any commerce with them hoping to starve them into sub-
mission (Nunes Pereira, 1939). After the Brazilians and Mundurucu made peace,
some of the latter joined some Maue in settling a little below the present city of
245
246 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
Mauhes, where Martius (1867) saw them in 1819. In 1832, another bloody con-
flict took the lives of some civilized men (Souza, A., 1870, p. 86). In 1823, the
village of Itaituba was founded on the Tapajoz River with Maue, and in 1828
there were 400 of them settled there.
The Andird mission flourished from 1848 to 1855 under Father Pedro de Ciriana,
despite conflicts between the missionary and the Parintins authorities. In 1849,
it had 507 Maue; in 1851, 570; and in 1852, 665, not counting a large number of
civilized people. In 1855, the missionary's place was taken by a parish priest
(Tenreiro Aranha, 1852, p. 32; Correa de Miranda, 1852, p. 128; Coelho, 1849,
p. 784; Wilkens de Mattos, 1856, p. 128).
In 1862 there were 4 villages in the Tapajoz region with 3,657 Maue (Souza, A.,
1870, p. 25). At the beginning of the 20th century, all but one of these villages
on the tributaries of the Tapajoz were destroyed by the rubber gatherers of
Itaituba, who took possession of the land. As a result, the Maue took sides
openly with the Amazon forces in the armed conflict of 1916 between this State
and Para.
In 1939, Nunes Pereira (1939) estimated that there were 2,000 to 3,000 Maue
in the Andira region, a figure which may have been a little high.
An adequate study has not been made of the Maue. Martius did not live with
them very long.
Reports on Maue character, based on direct observation, are generally favorable.
Bates (1863) called them "invariably friendly to the Whites"; Katzer (1901)
found them always friendly, unusually intelligent, quick to understand, and capable
of clear expression. The present author regarded them as suspicious and inclined
to lie though not to thieving, and as peace-loving and gay. Nunes Pereira (1939)
found them skillful and peace-loving.
Language. — The Maue language is known through six vocabularies.
(Coudreau, H., 1897 a; Katzer, 1901; Anonymous, ms. b; Nimuendaju,
1929 a, 1929 b; Koch Griinberg, 1932.) Fundamentally, it is Tupi, but
differs from the Guarani-Tupinamba. The pronouns agree perfectly with
the Curnaya-Mundurucu, and the grammar, insofar as the material permits
analysis, is Tupi. The Maue vocabulary, however, contains an element
that is completely foreign to Tupi but which cannot be traced to any other
linguistic family. Since the 18th century, the Maue language has incorpo-
rated numerous words from the Lingua Geral.
Ethnographical sources. — Barboza Rodrigues (1882 b) visited the
Maue in 1872, but his information lacks confirmation in some particulars.
The present author made a brief visit in 1923 to the more civilized Maue
on the Mariacua River. The most recent and detailed information is that
of Nunes Pereira in 1939.
CULTURE
SUBSISTENCE ACTIVITIES
Farming. — The Maue have always had remarkable interest in agri-
culture, but lost much of it with the development of the rubber industry.
They grow manioc, potatoes, cara (Dioscorea), beans, and lima beans:
Vo\. 3] THE MAUE AND ARAPIUM— NIMUENDAJU 247
nowadays, they also cultivate rice and coffee, which they prepare and drink
in the Brazilian manner. They still plant their old fruit trees, and they
grow kitchen and medicinal herbs on platforms. They also cultivate a
few Old World fruit trees. To plant root crops, they use a clean turtle
skull to pull the earth over the cuttings, believing that this will increase
production. At planting and harvesting times, the owner of a field
organizes a feast to reward his helpers.
Hunting. — The Maui are good hunters, though hunting is not an
important activity. Today many of them use fire arms, but in Martins'
time, they would refuse any game killed with guns or with dogs, leading
one to believe that originally dogs were as foreign to them as fire arms.
Martins was informed that the Maue acquired blowguns and poisoned
blowgun darts from their neighbors to the west, but this was not confirmed
by any other author. Nunes Pereira mentions some practices believed to
influence hunting : They pluck the breast and neck feathers of hunted fowl,
burn them, and rub them on their guns ; they wash their guns and dogs
with an infusion from a marsh plant called "jasmin de lontra" ; a gun
will be lucky if a cipo snake is allowed to decompose inside the barrel, and
it will be unlucky if it comes into contact with a pregnant or menstruating
woman. The Maue do not use game traps or lures of any kind.
Fishing. — They take fish with weirs, a special single-headed arrow
poisoning the water with a drug called timbo and, nowadays, fishhooks.
That they do not eat the large river fish but utilize only the smaller fish
of creeks and forest pools (Martins, 1867) supports the assumption that
they have habitually avoided the large rivers.
Wild-food gathering. — Martins states that the Maue roamed the
forest in search of palm fruits of various kinds, Brazil nuts, and piqui fruit.
They eat winged female sauva ants, which they take at swarming time,
roast, and pound with manioc flour. They also eat termites roasted in
banana leaves. Spix and Martins (1823-31, 3:1,318). state that they
introduced a slender stick into the anthill so that the insects took hold of it
and were thus conveyed to the mouth. They also eat a species of
batrachian.
VILLAGES AND HOUSES
According to Martins, the Maui lived in round single-family houses.
Their recent settlements consist of one or more huts, which are usually
rectangular with a gable roof and overhanging eaves but without walls.
These are well thatched with leaves of the carana palm. The kitchen is
generally in a separate hut, where the manioc flour is made. Nunes
Pereira mentions "rooms" in the Maui houses, and also a "dance house"
and the "house of menstruating women."
The main pieces of furniture are wooden benches carved out of a solid
block of wood. Cotton hammocks are twined, and the ends of the warp
248 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
are attached to special cords (sobrepunhos), which extend beyond them
to form loops, by which the hammock is suspended (Nimuendaju, ms.).
CLOTHING AND ADORNMENT
Nothing is known regarding aboriginal Maue dress. These Indians
quickly adopted their present clothing from the Brazilians, although many
still are naked from the waist up. They did not disfigure or tattoo them-
selves. Martins was told, however, that some persons pierced the lower
lip and inserted a small piece of wood in it. No authors mention body
painting.
TRANSPORTATION AND TRAVEL
The aboriginal Maue, a sedentary and agricultural people, lived inland
from the rivers, and were not a canoeing people. Sao Jose states that
"they usually do not know how to swim." Cerqueira e Silva (1833,
p. 273) says that they will not ford the Curauahy River, preferring
to take a great deal of trouble to make swinging bridges of vines.
This may be explained by their aversion to water. Martins stated that they
used canoes, some of the "uba" type hollowed out of guanani logs and
others made of jutahy bark. They are poor canoeists even today, but
they have a few canoes which are either acquired direct from the civilized
population or else, like their paddles, are rough imitations of those used
by the Whites. On the other hand, they make long treks on foot, with
the heavy basket ( jamaxim) on their backs, showing admirable endurance.
MANUFACTURES
Basketry. — From palm leaves and creepers, the Maue make baskets
with and without lids, sieves, strainers, fans, carrying baskets, hats, and
brooms. Some baskets with lids are made of red and black strips. These
articles are generally sold to civilized people.
Pottery. — The only earthenware objects made today are pans to dry
out the manioc flour ; no reference to other types occurs in the literature.
Scattered about in old dwellings in the Maue territory may be found plain
black sherds.
Gourds and calabashes. — Gourd containers lack ornamentation, but
calabashes sometimes are fire engraved on the green exterior.
Weapons. — The bow, flat on the belly and convex on the outside, is
made of a red wood and has specially made points to hold the ambauva
(Cecropia sp.) cord. Martins says Maue bows were a useful article of
trade. The arrows have arched feathering. The points are of: (1)
bamboo, rather small and lance-shaped; (2) bone, forming a barb;
(3) iron, for hunting tapir; (4) wood, bilaterally serrated; and (5) for
fishing, an iron nail forming a barbed point. The Maue also have little
Vol. 3] THE MAUB AND ARAPIUM— NIMUENDAJU 249
arrows for children, with a small crosspiece of sticks at the end. They
have no arrows with wooden plugs and do not use pellet bows. There
are no reports of clubs.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
According to Martius, the Mane were divided into "hordes" ; he cites
12 of these, giving their names in the Lingua Geral. Some of them, how-
ever, may not belong to the Maue tribe.
According to Nunes Pereira, the Maue believe themselves to be
descended from the animals or plants that lend their name to each "nation"
(i.e., Martius' "hordes"). We have no details or confirmation on this
score.
Families are patrilocal.
Maue chiefs enjoy remarkable authority even today, and there seems
to be a hierarchy of officials. Succession is patrilinear. There used to be
a special burial ceremony for chiefs.
Carefully preserved in the choir of the chapel of the Indian village
of Terra Preta, Nunes Pereira found an article which resembles a club,
but which the author calls a "magic paddle." It is made of dark wood,
45 inches (1.1 m.) long, 4 inches (11 cm.) greatest width, and 18 inches
(45 cm.) thick, narrowing toward the end, which resembles a top. The
larger half is ornamented on both sides with carved rhombs, points, and
bands, one of which bears an ornament derived from a basketry motive.
It was made by the third predecessor of the present chief and has been
transmitted to each. The designs allegedly refer to the tradition of the
tribe, but no explanation of them is given. The Maue call the object
"porantin."
LIFE CYCLE
Pregnancy and childbirth. — During pregnancy, both parents are
obliged to observe a strict diet of ants, fungi, and guarana dissolved in
water. To let their blood at this time, many cut their arms and legs with
a rodent's tooth or a toucan's bill set into a handle, starting profuse hem-
orrhages. Into these wounds they rub the ashes of burned genipa fruit
(Martius, 1867), To facilitate childbirth, the woman's hips are bathed
beforehand in the ashes of paca skulls or of birds' eggshells mixed with
water. After the birth, the parents' first food consists of fungi and two
kinds of ants (sauva and maniuara). The mother has a postpartum
rest period of a month, and the father goes on a diet of porridge
(mingau) and guarana. The first food taken after this period is inambu
Tinamus sp.) flesh (Nunes Pereira, 1939).
Children are carried in a sling hung around the neck. It is made of
raw fibers, the ends being tied with a black string. Sao Jose (1847)
250 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
states that the Maue practiced infanticide and abortion. Before puberty,
girls wear colored bands on their arms and below their knees.
Puberty. — At their first menstruation, girls retire to a hammock hung
to the rooftree. They maintain a rigorous diet until the end of the second
menstruation, taking only manioc cakes (beiju), fish, and water (Mar-
tius, 1867). Nunes Pereira states that they are fed fungi, which their
parents bring them, and that, at the end of this period, they eat inambu
and toucan flesh. The author fails to explain whether the "house of
menstruating women" which he saw was used only for the first menstrua-
tion, or for all. In some Indian villages, the same author says, women
retire to the "room of unmarried women" during menstruation.
All authors establish some relation between boys' puberty and the
Celebration of Tucandira. The Maue told the present author that the
application of tucanderas (stinging ants), though highly recommended
at any time of life, is necessary in boyhood, especially if a youth were
somewhat retarded in his physical development, and in old age, when
strength began to fail, and in cases of weakness. Nunes Pereira was
informed that boys of 6 and young men of 20 (?) were stung. The
ceremony, however, has not been witnessed, except by Barboza Rod-
rigues, who was present for 2 days. His description lacks confirmation
on some points. He states that it was celebrated annually in the main
hut by convocation of the chief. Everybody brought drinks and bar-
becued meat. The ants, benumbed by having been left in water over-
night, were caught in the mesh of a textile which was used to line a flat-
tened or cylindrical "glove," artistically woven from strips of fibers and
adorned with macaw and royal hawk feathers. Everybody gathered in
the chief's yard, the women seated in a circle within the circle of men.
The chief in the center held the "gloves." The singing began, and the
chief shook his rattle (maraca) while the others played bambu flutes
and drums. After blowing tobacco smoke on the ants, the chief put
the glove on one of the young men, who danced, yelling and howling,
inside the circle, amidst the applause of the crowd, until a woman or
the chief took the glove off him. After this, everyone moved on to the
nearest house and repeated the ceremony. According to Barboza Rod-
rigues (1882 b), a boy had to endure seven applications of ants, but
their sequence, and the relation between them and marriage was not
explained.
Martius reports that a cotton sleeve containing ants was first applied to
boys between 8 and 10. When they began to cry and scream, the spec-
tators drew them into a noisy dance, until they fell exhausted. Then
their stings were treated by older women with the juice of the manioc
leaf, and, as soon as they felt better, they had to try to draw their bows.
This ceremony was repeated until the age of 14, when a boy could bear it
without flinching and was considered ready to marry. According to
Vol. 3] THE MAUE AND ARAPIUM— NIMUENDAJU 251
Martius (1867), the Maue counted their age by the number of applica-
tions, but the words, in the Lingua Geral, which he gives in this connec-
tion — jiibir jepe, jiibir mocoim, etc. — only mean "one turn, two turns,"
etc. (jebyr, "turn").
Marriage. — Today the Maue are monogamous, but formerly polygamy
was permitted. There is no special marriage ceremony (Nunes Pereira,
1939). The candidate asks the girl's parents for their consent and it is
given after long deliberation, even if she has not yet reached puberty. The
couple settle in their own hut.
Married women are excluded from dances. All women are forbidden
to have any contact with persons outside the tribe and to use the Portu-
guese language, a prohibition which is not always observed nowadays.
Death and burial. — Today the Maue bury in cemeteries, more or less
in Christian fashion, but they still place the deceased's personal belongings
in the grave. The family observes a fast (Nunes Pereira). Formerly, the
dead were buried inside their house, in a sitting position. Martius states
that at the death of a chief, the tribe was obliged to go on a diet of ants
and guarana for a month. During the first 2 weeks of this time, the chief's
dead body, stretched out and tied to laths, was dried between fires ; then
it was buried, in a sitting position propped up with stones and sticks
in a round hole. The hole was not filled with earth, and at the end of the
month the body was taken out and exposed for a day. The whole tribe
danced around the body, weeping so that their tears ran into their mouths
and were swallowed. In the evening the body was buried in the same place
and position, and the celebration continued all night with dancing and
drinking. In one instance, when a chief died during a trip, his companions
severed his body in two below the ribs, dried the halves, and brought them
back to the village.
WARFARE
The Maue, though brave, were less warlike than the Mundurucu, with
whom they warred until the second half of the 18tli century. According
to Barboza Rodriguez (1882 b), the Maue who took part in the last fight
between the two tribes had lines of black tattooing on the thorax, similar
to that of the Mundurucu. They sometimes took prisoners of war. They
used the skulls of slain enemies as drinking vessels, and their long bones
as flutes. Before fighting, they took guarana (Martius, 1867) .
ESTHETIC AND RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Ornaments. — The Maue were formerly famous for articles made of
feathers, which were important commodities in their trade. Martius
mentions scepters and head and neck ornaments. The feather art has
disappeared, with the exception of some feather ornaments on the instru-
653333—47—19
252 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
ment used during the Celebration of Tucandira. The Maue still wear neck-
laces of small figures carved out of the hard nut of certain palms
Musical instruments. — Drums are heavy cylinders of wood, with one
end covered with leather. They are laid horizontally and played with the
hands. The Maue also use violins and caracachas, which are serrated
bambu cylinders scraped with a small stick.
Drinks and narcotics. — The Maue are very fond of a drink made from
dried cakes of manioc flour (the aroba or paiauaru of Neo-Brazilians).
Since the Maue were first mentioned by Bettendorf (1910, p. 36), they
have been famous for their cultivation and preparation of guarana (Paul-
linia sorbilis), of which they enjoyed the monopoly. The fruit is roasted
in an oven, pounded in a mortar, and made into hard, cylindrical rolls. A
little is grated off by means of a stone, and the powder is dissolved in
water in a gourd. This drink is called capo. People in groups take it
many times a day. The head of the house drinks it first and then it is
passed from right to left among the others. The Maue believe that guarana
brings them luck in any transactions, that it gives joy, and that it is a
stimulus to work, preventing fatigue and hunger.
In planting, the seeds are carefully chosen, as are later the young plants.
A medicine man goes through a ceremony over the ground when it is
ready for planting, and there are celebrations with dancing and drinking.
Formerly, the Maue, enjoyed a considerable trade in guarana, but by the
end of the last century, it had decreased with the rise of the rubber industry,
and today the greater part of the guarana for commercial purposes is
produced by Neo-Brazilians of the region.
The Maue explained to Nunes Pereira that guarana constitutes a pro-
tection or charm for them : That it brings rain, protects their farms, cures
certain diseases and prevents others, and brings success in war and in
love, especially when there are two rivals for the affections of one woman.
To the present author, they recommended it as well as parica for its magic
effects against storms.
Parica, made from the seeds of Mimosa acacioides, is now little used.
The seeds are roasted and finely pulverized in a carefully made, shallow
basin of a red wood, and the powder is dried on a flat piece of wood "or
of porcelain" (Spix und Martius, 1823-31, 3:1,318). The Indians use
two long tubular bones to sniff the powder up into both nostrils simul-
taneously, or they rolled a piece of banana leaf into a tube (Ratzel, 1894,
1:509). There is a statement by Martius (1867, p. 411) which could
be interpreted as meaning that the Maue also used parica as a clyster,
REUGION
Today all Maue are baptized and have chapels in their villages with
images of the saints, which they worship on their own account with
Vol. 3] THE MAUE AND ARAPIUM— NIMUENDAJU 253
litanies, imitating the Christian service in Latin. These services end in
dancing and drinking. In these celebrations, they use musical instruments.
Regarding their former religion, Martins (Spix and Martins, 1823-31,
3:1,331) was informed that there were vestiges of a belief in a god and
in the power of evil demons.
SHAMANISM
Nunes Pereira (1939) speaks of shamans of great reputation who
carry out ceremonies designed to bring about an excellent harvest of
guarana. All guarana plantations must be "blessed" by the shaman.
Some shamans cure diseases ; others are evil magicians who cause them.
The Maue greatly fear sorcery, and attribute all deaths to witchcraft, even
if the supposed spell was cast over a year previously. Their reluctance
to take medicine furnished by civilized people is prompted by their fear
of spells. All shamans work with an assistant. Today they take a strong
manioc drink (taroba) to stimulate them to action. Magic is exercised
by the shaman, but everybody knows something about medicinal plants
and animal products. Uaciri-pot, the chieftain and shaman, who probably
lived in the first half of the last century, had the power of capturing the
"mother of sickness" in the plaza by means of conjurations, magic ges-
tures, and lines drawn upon the ground.
MYTHOLOGY
Two legends are recorded (Nunes Pereira, 1939). In the first, the
true timbo (a fish drug) and the false timbo originated from the legs of
a buried child who had been killed by a spell cast by the fish ; water was
invented by these same fish. In the second, guarana originated from the
eyes of a boy who was born of the contact of a girl with a little snake,
and who was killed by his uncles. From the buried body, several animals
were born. The boy was finally resurrected and became the first Maue.
THE ARAPIUM
In the 17th and 18th centuries there lived to the west of the lower
Tapajoz, a tribe of Indians called Arapium (Fritz, 1691, (see Volume 1,
map 7) Arapiyu), lat. 2° 30' S., long. 55° 30' W., which the Jesuits
gathered at the beginning of the 18th century in the Cumaru Mission
(Villa Franca) at the mouth of the Arapiuns River. Both Martins (1867)
and Metraux (1928 a) considered them to be the same as the Maue. The
only ethnological data regarding them are the following, from Joao Daniel
(1841, pp. 168-71, 478) , who saw them :
Girls undergoing their first menstrual period were secluded and made
to fast. After the fast, the girl was bled from head to foot with a cutia
tooth. She then negotiated a marriage with the first young man she saw.
254 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.B. Bull. 143
Before marrying, a young man had to place his arms in long gourds
full of sauva ants {Atta sp.) to show his courage. A drinking feast
concluded the ceremonies.
A dead man's flesh was eaten by his relatives. Old women pulverized
his bones and mixed them in drinks.
The Arapium held celebrations in honor of the new moon. They went
out when it first appeared and stretched out their arms, hands, and fingers,
as if asking for health and strength.
Of these cultural features, only the girls' menstrual seclusion and
fasting and the young man's ant ordeal are found also among the Maui.
The others differ from Maue customs, proving that the Arapium were
most likely an offshoot of the Tapajo tribe. The present author, explor-
ing the Arapiuns River in 1924, found many old Indian dwelling places
where the pottery, with its plastic ornamentation, was very different from
that found in the region of the Maue, being much more similar to that
of the Tapajo. After 1762, when the Arapium were last mentioned as
living in Obidos and on the Arapiuns River, there is no further informa-
tion regarding them.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Almeida Serra, 1869 (1779); ms. b; Barboza Rodrigues, 1882 b; Bates, 1863;
Bettendorf , 1910 ; Cerqueira e Silva, 1833 ; Coelho, 1849 ; Correa de Miranda, 1852 ;
Coudreau, H., 1897 a; Daniel, 1841; Florence, 1841 (?) [1825-29]; Fritz, 1691;
Furtado, 1858; Katzer, 1901; Koch-Griinberg, 1932; Martius, 1867; Metraux, 1928 a;
Monteiro Baena, 1843 ; Nimuendaju, 1929 a, 1929 b ; ms. ; Nunes Pereira, 1939 ; Ratzel,
1894; Ribeiro de Sampaio, 1825; Sao Jose, 1847; Souza, A., 1870; Souza, C, 1874;
Souza Franco, 1842 ; Spix und Martius, 1823-31 ; Tenreiro Aranha, 1852 ; Wilkens de
Mattos. 1856.
THE MURA AND PIRAHA
By Curt Nimuendaju
THE MURA
TRIBAL LOCATION AND HISTORY
From the beginning, these Indians have been known as Mura (pro-
nounced Murd by their neighbors, the Tord and Matanawi of the Madeira
River). Their name for themselves, however, according to Barboza
Rodrigues (1892 b, p. 38), is Buhuraen, and according to Father Tastc-
vin (1923 a), Buxivaray or Buxwarahay. In the author's vocabularies,
the following forms are given as self -designations : Bohura (Manicore
River) ; Bhurai-ada, meaning "Mura language" (Manicore River), and
Bohurai; Bohuarai-arase, "Mura language" ; Nahi huxwara araha, mean-
ing "that one is Mura" ; Yane abahi araha buxwardi, "we are all Mura."
The Mura were first mentioned in 1714 in a letter by P. Bartholomeu
Rodrigues (in Serafim Leite, 1943), who located them on the right bank
of the Madeira River, between the Tora and the Unicore, between lat.
6° and 7° 40' S. They were hostile toward the Jesuit mission founded
in 1723 or somewhat later above the mouth of the Jamary River, and,
because of this hostility, the mission was transferred farther down the
river in 1742. Their unfriendly attitude was the result of a treacherous
act committed by a Portuguese trader who had kidnapped some of the
Mura and sold them as slaves.
For over 100 years, beginning in the early 18th century, the Mura
were a terrible scourge. The first expedition up the Madeira River into
Mato Grosso, under the leadership of Major Joao de Souza, had bloody
encounters with the Mura and threw the Indians back with great losses.
The Mura then avoided open battle and resorted to ambush for which
they became famous.
In 1749, when Joao Gongalves da Fonseca's expedition had several encounters
with them, the Mura were established on a lake on the right bank of the Madeira
River, opposite the "mouth of the Autaz" (Madeirinha, a little above Borba).
By 1768 they had passed to the region north of the Solimoes (Cudajaz) River,
but before this date they had extended to the lower Funis (Moraes, 1860, p. 535).
Upstream, however, they did not go beyond the mouth of the Jamary River.
255
256 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
It seems, therefore, that the original habitat of the Mura was on the Madeira
River, below the falls and near the mouth of the Jamary River; and that, after
they had become a warrior tribe and were aware of the effectiveness of their
tactics, they spread out downstream on the Madeira River and as far as the
Purus River, and from the latter as far as the Cudajaz River, which is almost
opposite (lat. 3°-7' S., long. 50°-63'' W. ; map 1, No. 1; map 4). Evidently this
expansion was not a move to draw away from the Mundurucu invasion, who at
that time, 1768, were merely mentioned on the Maues River. The expansion of the
Mura was facilitated by the fact that they found the country only sparcely in-
habited; the numerous old sedentary tribes had succumbed to the "avenging troops"
and to tlie mission system. Their weak remnants, lacking any initiative and pride
against servitude, and concentrated in a few villages, did not have the power to
resist the attacks of savages conscious of their superiority as warriors. It seems
that the Autaz region from then on began to be the center of the Mura, and it
remains so today. That the Mura had been preceded in the Autaz by other tribes
of higher culture is proved by the archeological remains found there by Tastevin
(1923 a) and the present author. These include a great number of hardwood
fishweirs, anthropomorphic urns of the Miracanguera type, jade objects, etc.
About 1774, the warlike expansion of the Mura had reached its climax, and the
desperate Neo-Brazilians demanded their extermination as the only means for
avoiding the complete downfall of Amazonas (Ribeiro de Sampaio, 1825). At
this time, Ribeiro de Sampaio mentions the Mura in the following places : Silves,
Madeira River (Borba), Autaz, Uaquiri (?), Manacapuru, Pures River, Cudajaz,
Mamia, Coary River, Catua, Caiame River, Teffe River, Capuca, Yauato, Fonte
Boa, Japura River, Amana, Manaus, Jahu River, Uinini River, and Carvoeiro.
Other authors add Obidos, Moura, Barcellos, Nogueira, Alvaraes, Maripi, Ayrao,
Poiares, and Abacaxys. The Mura were attacked in these places every year by
Government forces. These punitive expeditions, in spite of the resulting bloodshed,
were not effective, and the Mura continued to show their animosity. In 1784,
however, the Mura unexpectedly made peace with the Whites. In July, five Mura
appeared peacefully in Santo Antonio de Maripi, on the lower Japura River and
were followed later by many more. Other Mura presented themselves in Tefife,
Alvaraes, and Borba. In the latter place, where in 1775 an Army outpost had
been created for the protection of the residents and travelers against their hostili-
ties, their number grew in 3 years to more than 1,000. 1786, the Mura of the
Cudajaz came to terms, and by the end of the same year the whole tribe had made
peace and started to settle down in permanent villages.
The reason for their peace overtures was, perhaps, the gradual weakening of
the tribe by epidemics, by the adoption of foreign elements, and, particularly, by
the relentless war that the Mundurucu waged against them. The latter, crossing
from the Madeira River westward, butchered the Mura in Autaz without, however,
dislodging them permanently from a single one of the many places that they had
occupied. Even after the pacification, the Mura, according to Martins, spread
farther out upstream on the Solimoes to beyond the Tabatinga frontier. The
latest establishments, about which there is some information, were on the Jandiatuba
River, a little below Sao Paul de Olivenga and in the region of the lower Amazon
in Mura-tapera, now called Oriximina, on the Trombetas River, some 35 km. (22
miles) above the mouth.
In the beginning of the 19th century, relations with the Whites seemed to have
been generally good ; at least Canon Andre Fernandes de Souza, who mentions
them at that time, does not speak of recent hostilities. According to him, the
Mura were the only natives respected by the civilized people. Later, however, the
Mura resumed their hostilities on the Madeira River.
Vol. 3] THE MURA AND PIRAHA— NIMUENDAJU 257
During the "Cabanagem," a revolt that evolved into a general uprising of the
Indian, Negro, and Mestizo servants against their White masters, the rebels won
the adherence of the Mura w^ho, together with them, robbed, killed, and burned.
Together with the rebels, they were defeated and massacred, 1834-36. Friction be-
tween the Mura of the Madeira and the civilized people continued for a long
time after the revolt. The report by Governor Tenreiro Aranha in 1852 contains
many complaints against members of this tribe, who committed horrible crimes
against defenseless people. The governor sent reinforcements to the military out-
post in Mataura, commissioned a well-armed river patrol, and appropriated the
amount of 1,308 milreis for mission work. None of these missions (Sao Pedro,
Crato, Manicore) lasted long. The last acts of hostilities on record on the Madeira
refer to the killing of a soldier and two slaves of the Crato missionary by the
Mtitra of the Capana in 1855. Later, the Mura gathered on Ongas Island for the
purpose of attacking travelers.
The author of "Illustragao" (Anonymous, ms. a) estimated the number of Mura
at 60,000 at the time of the pacification. This number is no doubt too high, as
is 30,000 to 40,000 given by Martius in 1820 (Spix and Martins, 1823-31, vol. 3).
Estimates based on the report of Albuquerque Lacerda showed that the Mura did
not exceed 3,000 in 1864. In 1926, the present author counted 1,390 inhabitants
occupying 26 Mura huts on the Madeira, Autaz, and Urubii Rivers. The total
number might have been 1,600.
The Mura never expanded very much on land. Even during the time of their
greatest extension, they always sought the low floodlands of the shores of the
Amazon-Solimoes River and its tributaries, and similar lands on the Rio Negro
and Japura, Solimoes, Madeira, Purus, and Amazon Rivers. They settled only
where they could move about in canoes, choosing spots where they could build
their villages, plant their crops, and hunt. Throughout their known history, they
can be characterized as a canoeing and fishing people.
The Mura are today so much crossed with Neo-Brazilians that it is impossible
to determine their original physical type. Truly Negroid types, however, are rare.
In the area of Yuma Lake, the author found, in 1926, a relatively large percentage
of individuals of Indian type, characterized by an arched nose and receding chin.
When the Mura made peace in 1784, they had already absorbed many foreign
ethnic elements from people who had sought refuge among them or who had been
captured by them. Large groups of other tribes, such as the Jufmtna and Iruri, were
with the Mura at that time. The Jumana belonged to the Arawakan family, and
both the Jumana and Iruri had a more advanced culture than the Mura. We do
not know the influence of these foreign elements on Mura culture.
LANGUAGE
After their pacification, the Mura began to adopt the Lingua Geral,
but at the time of Martius' trip, this language was little used. In 1850
they could speak it, but used the Mura language among themselves.
Later they substituted Portuguese for the Lingua Geral, and now the
majority of the groups use Portuguese. Some groups still speak the
Lingua Geral among themselves, but only occasional individuals know
the Mura language. In many groups it has disappeared completely.
Martius' contention that most of the words of the Mura language are of
Tupian origin has remained unsubstantiated. Even the number of ele-
ments adopted from the Lingua Geral is strangely small. Most noticeable
258 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
are the regular use of the first and second singular, personal pronouns,
and first person plural of Lingua Geral.
According to most linguists (Ehrenreich, Chamberlain, Rivet, Lou-
kotka), the Mura language is isolated. The fact mentioned by the present
author that the Matanawi language has a scant half-dozen words in com-
mon with the Mura does not mean that the two languages should be con-
sidered, as by Rivet (1924, p. 673) and Loukotka (1939, p. 154), as
members of the same family. Only the following vocabularies have been
published: Martins (1867, 2:20), Nimuendaju and Valle Bentes (1923),
and Nimuendaju (1925, 1932 b).
CULTURE
StreSISTENCE ACTIVITIES
Farming. — The Mura practiced farming before their pacification, but
only on a small scale. According to Fonseca Coutinho (1873), they had
large manioc and maize fields on the Autaz River, Moreover, A. F. de
Souza (1870) mentions mandioca plantations of the Mura on the Matu-
piry, a tributary of the Madeira River, at the beginning of the 19th cen-
tury. The author of "Observaijoes addicionais" (Anonymous, ms. a, pt. 2)
says that they did not plant anything, but looted the crops of others to
make a fine manioc flour. This, however, presupposes that they already
had pans, sieves, and tipiti baskets. This, together with the Jara ceremony
(see below), suggests that they were acquainted with manioc and its
preparation. Very likely at war time they found it more convenient to
steal tubers than to plant them.
Hunting and fishing. — The gathering of wild fruit was also important
in their economy, but above all the Mura were fishermen. Their skill
was admired not only by the civilized people but by their Indian neigh-
bors, such as the Catazvishi, who were also fishermen. The Mura caught
turtles under water by hand, and after harpooning pirarucu (Arapaima
gigas) and manatee, they pursued them between obstacles of aquatic plants
and fallen trees. The importance of the harpoon here suggests that they
had been acquainted with this weapon for a long time. In order to bring
a dead manatee aboard their canoes, they swamped the craft so as to
push it under the floating animal and then floated it again by emptying it.
They knew the use of the babracot, but preferred to roast their meat
buried in the ashes or on a spit.
HOUSES AND VILLAGES
The Mura build their houses in small groups of two to five, which some-
times are scattered far apart along the shore of a lake or river. They
rarely live in isolated huts. According to Tastevin (1923 a), five or six
families live in a hut, but the author noted that this occurs only in excep-
Vol. 3] THE MURA AND PIRAHA— NIMUENDAJU 259
tional cases, each family usually having its own hut. These houses are not
as poorly made as it has often been stated, and many of them do not differ
from the huts of the poorer Neo-Brazilians of the region. The area sur-
rounding the houses is not generally kept clean.
Judging from a drawing in Martins' Atlas, the original Mura hut seems
to have been dome-shaped, with the rafters reaching to the ground and
thatched with vertical palm leaves.
The anonymous author of "Observaqoes addicionais" (Anon., ms. a,
pt. 2) states that as a rule their real home is their canoe, and the present
writer noticed in 1926 that the Mura of the Juma River slept on a platform
in the canoe.
It seems probable that formerly the Mura slept on platforms such as
those described by Father Tastevin (1923) and not in hammocks.
The early writers report that the Mura hammocks consisted only of
three cords, a central one to support the weight of the body and lateral
ones to maintain the equilibrium. This is obviously a satire of their indo-
lence. Other information is more plausible. Ferreira states that in 1875
their sleeping hammocks were made of fibers of inner tree bark. Alfred R.
Wallace (1853) says that they were made of three strips of embira, and
Martius that they were made of a piece of bark (innerbark) shaped like
a canoe. Bates (1863, p. 305) describes a Mura hammock as a "rudely
woven web of ragged strips of the inner bark of the monguba tree" {Bom-
hax sp.). Later it seems that the Mura imitated the hammocks of neigh-
boring tribes and of the Neo-Brazilians. Father W. Schmidt (1913)
mentions a tucum hammock of the Mura in the Museum of Vienna, and
the author saw two hammocks on the Juma River made of jauary (Astro-
caryum sp.) fibers.
DRESS AND ORNAMENTS
Both sexes were completely naked, although one of Cavina's water
colors (Ferreira, n. d., pi. 3^) shows an apron of twisted embira or burity
fibers which is suspended from a belt and the upper part of which appears
braided ; the upper border is ornamented with a band of white zigzags
over a red background. The ears and septum were pierced and pieces
of cane passed through the holes. The upper lip was perforatd above
the corners of the mouth, while the lower lip was perforated in the center.
In these holes the Mura inserted animal teeth or wooden pegs. Accord-
ing to Ferreira, the lip ornaments are of stone found in pirarucu brains ;
in the paintings, they are small, whitish, and somewhat three-lobed.
They wore their hair trimmed along the forehead at the level of the eye-
brows and long behind. It was usually disheveled.
They painted themselves with urucu and with a black pigment. Some-
time they smeared themselves with mud as a protection against insects.
^ Ferreira, who was a member of the first expedition to encounter the Mura, described this plate
as follows: "Um dos gentios Muras que pelo meiado do mez de Novembro do anno proximo passado
de 1786 aportaram no logar de Ayrao."
260 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
TRANSPORTATION
Mura canoes were formerly made of tree bark and were 6.6 m. (about
22 ft.) long, 1.1 m. (3.25 ft.) wide, and 44 cm. (17 in.) deep. The ends
were tied up with creepers. These craft carried four or five people. The
original type of paddle is unknown. When not in use, the canoes were
kept submerged so as to be hidden from any enemy and so that they
would not dry up and crack. The fire-hollowed dugout, at first stolen
from the Neo-Brazilians and later made by themselves, finally replaced
bark canoes.
MANUFACTURES
Mats and basketry. — The Mura used large mats on their beds and in
their canoes, and smaller ones to sit on. Carrying baskets were made of
two interwoven palm leaves.
Pottery and gourds. — According to Martius, the Mura had pottery,
but he does not say if they made it. The present writer has never seen
any ware made by them. He did, however, see gourds which had been
dyed black on the inside and crudely carved on the outside.
Weapons. — The only weapon was the bow and arrow. The bow
measured 2.7 m. (9 feet) according to Joao Daniel (1841, p. 168) and
2 m. (6 feet) according to Southey (1862, 6:248-249). The back is
strongly convex, the belly only moderately so. W. Schmidt (1913) de-
scribes the feathering as radial and cemented. Fishing arrows lacked
feathering. War arrows were formerly tipped with lanceolate bamboo
heads 33 cm. (13 in.) long and 10 cm. (4 in.) wide, with two large
barbs on each side. Now they have iron heads. The author found arrows
made of a single piece of paxiuba on Lake Sampaio. An arrow figured
by Therese von Bayern (1897, pi. 2, fig. 4) has arched feathering and
is tipped with a rod notched along the side. The Mura in Covina's
picture is armed with two arrows, each with a broad wooden point that
has four or five pairs of barbs, and, protruding beyond this point, another
lanceolate point of bamboo.
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION
When the Mura made peace in 1786, they were divided into many
groups, each numbering 45 to 150 persons and having its own chief. The
26 groups visited and counted by the author in 1926 averaged 53 persons
and ranged from 15 to 120. Chieftainship was formerly hereditary, but
carried little authority. According to the author of "Illustragao," (Anon-
ymous, ms. a) the Mura rendered to the chief "respect and obedience
as to a father." A tuft of yellow and black feathers tied to the forehead
might have been a distinctive chief's ornament (Martius, 1867). Aftei
the pacification, the principal chief of the Mura lived at Amatary, on the
Vol. 31 THE MURA AND PIRAHA— NIMUENDAJU 261
left bank of the Amazon, somewhat above the mouth of the Madeira
River.
Each family head had his private fishing ground which he would defend
against any poacher. In quarrels over fishing groups, disputants fought
each other with the clubs, which a Mura always carried in his canoe to
stun the fish after they are caught.
UFE CYCLE
Pregnancy and childbirth. — During a woman's pregnancy there are
no restrictions on her husband. Formerly, during childbirth, the woman
would sit on a "log of a certain wood burned all over its surface as char-
coal." Such logs were carried in the canoe, so that a trip might not be
interrupted by childbirth ("Observagoes addicionais," Anonymous,
ms. a, pt. 2) . After childbirth, the father stays at home. He fasts for 5 days
and the mother for a longer period. The size of the fish which the
father may eat increases as the baby grows. Until the child can walk,
the father may not hunt and eat his kill lest during his absence the boto
{Sotalia brasiliensis) and the jaguar come invisibly and take revenge
by killing the child. The author learned that if the father were to hunt
a caiman, boto, otter, or anhima (Anhima cornuta) before the child
could walk, these animals would steal the child's shadow. Herndon and
Gibbons (1853-54, vol. 1.) mention cases of infanticide, but the present
writer was impressed by the kind treatment of children.
Puberty. — From the beginning of the first menstruation until the end
of the second menstruation, the girl is confined in a corner of the hut
where she lies in her hammock.
The passage from childhood to adulthood was marked by a ceremony
in which boys were permitted for the first time to take parica snuff.
(See p. 263.) The boy was also flagellated (p. 264).
Marriage. — The aboriginal Mura had only one wife "whom they loved
with tenderness and guarded with savage jealousy" ("Observagoes ad-
dicionais". Anonymous, ms. a, pt. 2; see also Spix and Martius, 1823-
31, vol. 3). It seems that the Mura later became polygynous. Spix and
Martius (1823-31, vol. 3) and Wallace (1889) stated that every man had
two or three wives, who were kept in abject servitude. They were acquired
as prizes in boxing matches between the girl's suitors, which were fought
as soon as she had reached puberty. In earlier times, murder of wife
stealers was sanctioned ; later, such offenders were less severely punished.
Present-day Mura still feel honered if a person whom they esteem
courts an unmarried daughter, and they allow the girls of the tribe a great
deal of liberty. Today a request for marriage is made by the young man
to the girl's parents, who sometimes demand of him some service. The
marriage is concluded without any formality and, according to Tastevin,
is easily dissolved. Marital fidelity is not strictly observed.
262 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
Funeral rites. — Formerly, a person was buried with all his possessions
wherever he happened to die. At the beginning of the present century,
the Miira of Murutinga (Autaz) still erected a small hut over the tomb,
even in Christian cemeteries, and placed food, drink, and the weapons
of the deceased on the grave. The mangoes which grew in the cemetery
were reserved for the dead.
WARFARE
For half a century the Mnra waged unceasing war against the civilized
Indians and the Neo-Brazilians. According to Martins, they declared
war against occasional enemies by planting arrows, head upward, in the
ground in the territory of the rival tribe. Attacks were made silently.
They ambushed canoes near rapids where travelers were forced to draw-
near the shore, watching the approach of their victims from the tops of
sumauma trees {Ceiha pentandra). They also ambushed enemies on the
paths leading to the plantations. In the onslaught, they did not pay any
attention to age or sex. They mutilated the bodies, but did not bring
home any trophies, and they have never been seriously accused of can-
nibalism. According to Ribeiro de Sampaio (1825), they took prisoners
to enslave them, but it is more likely that they incorporated them in the
tribe. At the time of the pacification, the most important Mura chief
was a civilized Indian, who had been captured as a child and reared by
Whites. His mother, also a captive, acted as an interpreter during the
peace negotiations.
By the end of the 18th century, the Mura's most feared enemies were
the Mundurucu, who had come from the region of the Tapajoz River,
sailed down the Canuma and Abacaxys Rivers, and established them-
selves on the Madeira River at Tobocal near the mouth of the Aripuana
River. It is probable that the Mura's defeat by the Mundurucu con-
tributed greatly to their pacification. According to Martins, the Mura
feared the Mundurucu so much that they did not even resist when the
latter came for their women.
ESTHETIC AND RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Musical instruments. — The Mura used a kind of clarinet, commonly
called tore, made of a thick bamboo, and a five-hole bamboo flute. The
latter was used for transmitting messages about a great variety of mat-
ters (Marcoy, 1866, and Anonymous, ms. a).
Dances and songs. — The dance witnessed by Martius was an imitation
of the Neo-Brazilian dance, and the songs which accompanied it were
in the Lingua Geral. The dances in vogue in Tastevin's time (1923 a)
are identical to those of the Mura's civilized neighbors. Southey (1862,
6:348), however, speaks of an original dance in which the Indians were
Vol. 3] THE MURA AND PIRAHA— NIMUENDAJU 263
arranged in two lines. Those of one line were armed with bows and
arrows; the Indians of the other line were painted, and blew on long
bamboo flutes. A man led the dance with grotesque gestures. In 1926,
the Mura of the Juma River performed a nocturnal circle dance accom-
panied by the tore clarinet, and by songs about the sloth {Brady pus sp.)
After the dance, the men gathered on one side of the ring and women
on the other to bleed each other with sharp pirarucu and tambaqui fish-
bones.
Narcotics. — Parica, made from the roasted seeds of the parica tree
{Mimosa acacioides), is the most powerful narcotic used by the Mura.
It was taken either as a snuff or as an enema. As a snuff, it was blown
into the nostrils by means of a tube 1 foot (31 cm.) long made of tapir
bone or a bird's leg bone. The powder was kept in a large bamboo tube
and the doses measured out with an caiman tooth. It caused a general
state of excitement and exaltation with auditory hallucinations, and a
condition of feverish activity which ended with prostration or uncon-
sciousness. According to Martins, individuals who were over-excited by
the narcotic and suffocated died on the spot. "Observaqoes addicionais"
states that on the morning following a narcotic spree, the bodies of per-
sons were often found shot with arrows or stabbed with knives. These
murders were not considered as crimes and were blamed on the parica.
Parica taken as an enema by means of a rubber syringe had a similar
but weaker effect. The participants in groups of ten sat in circles while
old women held a vase containing the liquid and passed the syringe from
hand to hand. To increase the effect, the enema was accompanied by
singing, "He! He!" (Marcoy, 1866). The drunken men danced and
threatened each other with weapons, which the women always tried to
remove from the parica house. Present-day Mura still snuff parica but
take less of it than before. A bamboo tube is used for the purpose
(Nunes Pereira, personal communication).
The ancient Mura prepared manioc chicha. Today they have acquired
two dangerous vices which have contributed to their moral and physical
degradation: rum, from the White; and liamj)a (hashish), from the
Negroes (Tastevin, 1923 a, p. 517). A large part of the payment which
they receive for their services is rum and liamba, in exchange for which
they are willing to surrender to the Neo-Brazilians their last bit of food.
Then they spend day after day in a state of torpor, unable to work.
RELIGION
Little is known about Mura religion with the exception of a few cere-
monies and magico-religious practices. Today the tribe is Christian, but
its adherence to the Church lies only in the knowledge of a few saints, the
ceremony of baptism, and the celebration of some feasts.
264 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
The Parica feast. — Martius denies that parica was taken at puberty
initiations and links it instead to the ripening of the parica seeds. Marcoy
(1866) says that anyone who had parica would invite others to the parica
house, an open shelter built for the purpose and forbidden to women.
The great parica feast was preceded by a hunt which lasted one week.
The feast began with flagellation, after which came libations of a non-
alcoholic beverage made with the fruit of the acahy palm. Then parica
was taken, first in the form of snuff and afterward as an enema. The
feast ended with a dance which lasted 24 hours. Marcoy's description of
the feast contains obvious inaccuracies.
Martius gives second-hand information about this ceremony. The feast
was celebrated every year and lasted for 8 days. It began with the
drinking of cauim and other intoxicants. Then pairs of men flagellated
each other with a long leather thong of tapir and manatee hide. This
continued for several days. Afterward the partners kneeled in front of
each other and blew parica powder into each other's nostrils by means
of a tapir bone tube. ( See Martius, 1867, fig. 63. )
Punishment rites. — The flagellation rite was also practiced during the
full moon, its purpose being to increase one's strength. One man would
hold the victim with his arms outstretched while the old man who per-
formed the flagellations in the puberty ceremonies would whip him with
a few lashings on the arms and legs.
After burning the brush for planting, the Mura performed a flagellation
ceremony in order to increase the output of manioc. They brought in a
pile of whips made of jara palm (Leopoldina pulchra), and the men
surrounded the houses, seizing all the grown children, whose parents could
not interfere. Each was held by two men, and forced to lean forward.
A very old man sang, danced, and finally whipped the children's backs with
the jara whips.
In order to make young boys successful in fishing, the Mura take them
to a tucandeira ant's nest and force them to expose a hand to the sting of
the ants.
Shamanism. — In Wallace's time, 1850, Mura shamans were highly
regarded as men of great ability. They were feared and their services were
always well paid. The shamans observed by Tastevin and the present
author are faithful counterparts of the Neo-Brazilian shamans of that
region, and have no aboriginal features.
Ornaments and preparations with magic power have been reported
among the Juma River Mura. A caraiperana (Rosaceae) seed necklace
offers protection against grippe and headaches. A necklace made of
"tears of Our Lady" wards off eye disease. Painting the face with urucu
protects against chickenpox. Juparana leaves were used against malaria.
According to Spix and Martius ( 1823-31, vol. 3) , the Mura used a monkey
penis as a charm against fever.
Vol. 3] THE MURA AND PIRAHA— NIMUENDAJU 265
MYTHOLOGY
Some fragments of Mura cosmogony have been collected by Father
Tastevin (1923 a) and the author. Heaven is a world, somewhat like the
earth, where souls live and die and where the fearsome thunder resides.
There is also a nether world, which is an aquatic region. The moon is
female during 14 days, when women have greater vigor, and male during
a like period, when men are especially strong.
The waters of the earth are connected to those of heaven ; when there
is a flood on the earth, the waters ebb in heaven, and vice versa.
The coal sack near the Southern Cross is a manatee carrying on its
back a fisherman (Alpha and Beta Crucis of the Southern Cross), whose
canoe was upset by the fish, while his companion (Alpha and Beta of
Centaurus) is getting ready to throw the harpoon. The lightest part of
the Milky Way is foam worked up by the manatee in the water.
The origin of the rainbow is explained as follows : A woman carried in
her womb two snakes that would climb trees, bring her fruits, and return
into her. Her husband killed them, and they went up to the sky, where
they became the upper and lower rainbows. The rainbow is also con-
ceived as the mouth of a large snake through which souls enter heaven.
So as to obtain free passage, a coin is placed in the mouth of the deceased.
If the latter is very poor, a fig is used instead. The master of the rainbow
snake is called kaai tuhui.
The following are some Mura myths :
The flood. — Men escaped the rising flood in canoes and found a high
rock, where they gathered, subsisting on the animals which also had taken
refuge there. After the deluge had passed, they could not find their way
home until a shaman took them there.
The great fire. — There was once a world conflagration, from which
only one family escaped. The man had dug a deep cave, provided it with
30 pitchers of water, and erected a house of wood and straw inside it.
He closed the entrance with stone. The fire passed above the cave, and
it was intensely hot in the pit. Two weeks later, the stone was still hot,
and the family did not emerge until the stone was cool enough to move.
The earth was deserted and had no water or plants. The man built a hut,
but he worried because only 10 pitchers of water remained. Then the
Holy Ghost came with drums and flags, and the Indian obtained water
from him. He got fish from Saint Anthony, palm trees from Saint John,
and manioc from Saint Peter. The last ordered him to lie down on his
back and when he turned around he saw that the manioc had already
grown a foot. On the left bank of the Amazon near Manaos the dry and
stunned vegetation bears witness to the great fire.
The prisoners of the pigs. — A newly married man went pig hunting.
When he killed a sow, the aroused animals forced him to climb a tree.
They dug up the roots of the tree, and when it fell they carried him away.
266 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
The pig's mother, a small red animal, kept him with her. When they went
past uixu, burity, and biriba trees they asked him whether he ate these
fruits, and he answered that he did. The pigs then assumed a human
shape. He had to sleep among them. When he arose, they did the same
and grunted and sniffed. After 2 months, he managed to escape by
climbing a tree and jumping from branch to branch. He carried away
the pig's flute. After he had returned home, he invited his wife, his
brother, and brother-in-law to hunt pigs. While they remained in the
canoe, he blew twice on his flute. Soon a large herd of pigs came running
toward him, and he killed as many as he wanted. His other brother
returned from a trip and inquired how he obtained so many pigs. Then
the brother took the flute and, saying that the other was a fool for having
allowed the pigs to take him prisoner, he went ashore, blowing the flute.
The pigs killed him and took the flute back.
THE PIRAHA
TRIBAL LOCATION, HISTORY, AND LANGUAGE
The Pirahd (Pirianaus, Piaarhaus, Piraheus, Piriahai, Piriaha, Piriaha,
Pinyaha, Iviridyarohu, "lords of fiber rope," i.e., armbands, Ivirapa-poku,
"long bow," and Tapii, "strangers") is a subtribe of the Mura, which
speaks a distinct dialect. It has evidently always occupied its present
habitat between lat. 6°25' and 7° 10' S., along the lower Maicy River and
at Estirao Grande do Marmellos, below this river's mouth.
The Pirahd have remained the least acculturated Mura tribe, but they
are known only through a short word list and unpublished notes obtained
by the author during several brief contacts in 1922, when efforts were
being made to pacify the Parintintin.
The dialects of the Pirahd and Mura of Manicore are mutually intel-
ligible, and differences in these dialects appearing in the author's vocabu-
lary may be partly attributable to informant difficulties. In a few instances,
the Mura "r" becomes "g" in the Pirahd dialect.
The Pirahd are mentioned by Ferreira Penna (1853) in 1853, by
Orton (1875, p. 470) in 1873, and by Barboza Rodrigues (1892 b) in
1885, the last describing them as the fiercest of all the Mura.
In 1923, they numbered around 90. In 1921, the "Servigo de Protegcao
aos Indios" established a center to give them aid but, apparently content
with their present state, these Indians have shown little inclination to
acquire European culture. Except for a few implements, they show
almost no sign of any permanent contact with civilized people. They
showed no interest in the utensils and clothing given them by the Serviqo
de Protecqao aos Indios. Neither did they steal. In fact, no two tribes
offer a more striking contrast than the Pirahd and their neighbors, the
Vol. 3] THE MURA AND PIRAHA— NIMUENDAJU 267
Parintintin. The latter were active, clever, greedy for new things, ambi-
tious, and thieving.
In general, the author found the Pirahd dull and unresponsive. Their
sullenness made field research among them difficult. Their indifference
and aloofness is probably more apparent than real, and seems to stem from
their deep resentment at seeing their old enemies, the Parintintin, being
favored by the governmental authorities, whereas they, who had never
been hostile to the Neo-Brazilians, were treated with much less regard.
The vocabulary collected among them never exceeded 71 words. The
Pirahd appeared to be completely indifferent as linguistic informants. In
spite of several decades of contact with Neo-Brazilians, their knowledge of
Portuguese and of the Lingua Geral never exceeded a dozen words.
THE YAHAHI
Barboza Rodrigues (1892 b) divides the Mura into Pirahens (Pirahd),
Burahens, and the Jahaahens (Yahahi), giving for the location of the last
the Solimoes River. The Tord and Maranawi, who inhabit the lower
Marmellos, call the Yahahi a subtribe of the Mura, which they say used
to live on the Branco River, a tributary of the right bank of the upper
Marmellos. The last survivors of the Yahahi joined the Pirahd.
CULTURE
SUBSISTENCE ACTIVITIES
The Pirahd grew maize, sweet manioc (macaxera), a kind of yellow
squash (jurumum), watermelon, and cotton. They were also excellent
hunters and fishermen. The only aboriginal fishing technique observed
among them was shooting fish with an arrow ; however, the)'^ used fish-
hooks obtained from civilized people. They ate Brazil nuts and wild fruit,
and they liked honey mixed with water. They did not drink rum.
DWELLINGS
The dwellings of the Pirahd were rudimentary and badly constructed.
Some were merely a poorly thatched roof covering a rude platform which
served as a floor. As the huts were built on the beach slopes, the downhill
ends of the flooring poles rested on a horizontal pole supported on two
forked posts, while the uphill ends were stuck in the sand of the slope.
On this platform were strewn one or more straw mats. The palm leaves
of the roof were thrown at random over a still lighter framework, resting
on four small forks about 5 to 6J/^ feet (Ij^ to 2 m.) above the first. The
rain beat in everywhere as there were no walls. Similar, but larger, huts
were sometimes placed side by side in twos or threes. In the summer,
653333—47—20
268 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
one saw huts in little groups on the beaches of the Maicy River; in the
winter, the Indians lived on land not subject to floods. On one small
inland farm, a better constructed, open, gable-roof hut was noted.
DRESS AND ORNAMENTS
The men wore a belt of raw fibers with fringe down the front, cover-
ing and holding the penis up against the abdomen. The women, at least
in the camps, were nude. The women's ears and the lower lips of some
of the men were pierced. The young women, from puberty until mar-
riage, wore two fiber strings, sometimes braided, across the shoulders.
Over the biceps the men wore fiber bands with long fringe. The women
had necklaces of seeds and animal teeth. Though they had rustic wooden
combs, their hair was always more or less unkempt. They did not re-
move the body hairs. In spite of their river habitat, the Pirahd, especially
the children, were very dirty and untidy. Use of urucii and genipa body
paint was rare.
MANUFACTURES
Miscellaneous. — The Pirahd made pouches with handles, baskets of
babassu straw, gourds for holding water, gourds with painted black in-
teriors, and spoons made of monkey skulls. They made two types of
straw fans, one rectangular and the other in the shape of a fish. There
was no pottery. The Indians usually slept on a platform, but sometimes,
to escape the mosquitoes, they lay in their canoes, tying them to a branch
on the bank. Very rarely, one saw a netlike fiber hammock, in which
they rested during the day.
Weapons. — The only Pirahd weapon was the bow and arrow; it was
powerful but less carefully made than those of the Parintintin. The ar-
rows had radial feathering, tied at intervals. A jawbone with tusks was
used to smooth the bow and the wooden arrow shaft. On the edge of
the bamboo arrow point a cutia's tooth was set in a handle.
WARFARE
The Parintintin and the Pirahd were constantly at odds. In both tribes
there were a number of Indians who bore scars of wounds from this
fighting. Their hostile encounters usually took place in the summer when
the Pirahd went up the Maicy River, sometimes as far as the Maicy Fork,
looking for tracaja (turtle, Podocnemis) eggs in Parintintin country.
Likewise, the Parintintin attacked the Pirahd in their camps on the lower
Maicy River almost every year. Unlike their enemies, the Pirahd were
not cannibals and did not take trophies from the bodies of the slain
enemies. They did, sometimes, take prisoners. Thus in 1916 or 1917
they captured a Parintintin woman and child and sold them to the civil-
ized people of the lower Marmellos River. Long ago the Pirahd seem
Vol. 3] THE MURA AND PIRAHA— NIMUBNDAJU 269
also to have had some bloody battles with the Matanawi, but to all ap-
pearances they managed to get along peaceably with the Tord.
ESTHETIC AND RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES
No musical instruments were seen among the Pirahd. A group of
Pirahd who were camped near the Brazilian Government Center held a
dance from the rising to the setting of the full moon. Holding hands
and singing in unison, men and women formed a circle and danced in
an open space. Starting slowly, they accelerated until they were running.
This was repeated all night long. One of the men wore around his head
a cord with short feathers of many colors; others had yellow grains of
mumbaca palm trees (Astrocaryum miimhaca) hanging over their ears
as ornaments. At a certain time, all were served a warm gruel of the
jurumiim (squash) in a large gourd, made by roasting the plant in ashes
and crushing it with the hands in water.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Albuquerque Lacerda, 1864; Anonymous, ms. a; Barboza Rodrigues, 1892 b;
Bates, 1863 ; Daniel, 1841 ; Fernandes de Souza, 1870 ; Ferreira, ms. ; Ferreira Penna,
1853; Fonseca, 1880-81; Fonesca Coutinho, 1873; Herndon and Gibbons, 1853-54;
Leite, 1943; Loukotka, 1939; Marcoy, 1866; Martins, 1863, 1867; Monteiro Noronha,
1862; Moraes, 1860; Nimuendaju, 1924, 1925, 1932 b; Nimuendajii and Valle Bentes,
1923; Nunes Pereira, 1939; Orton, 1875; Ribeiro de Sampaio, 1825; Rivet, 1924;
Schmidt, W., 1913; Southey, 1862; Sousa, A., 1870; Spix and Martius, 1823-31, and
Atlas; Tastevin, 1923 a; Therese von Bayern, 1897; Wallace, 1853, 1889.
THE MUNDURUCU'
By Donald Horton
TERRITORY AND NAME
The Mundurucu are a TM^f-speaking people in the southwestern por-
tion of the State of Para and the southeastern corner of the State of
Amazonas, Brazil (map 1, No. 1; map 4; lat. 5°-8° S., long. S6°-60°
W.). When first encountered by Europeans in the late 18th century,
the Mundurucu were a warlike people, aggressively expanding their
territory along the Tapajoz River and adjacent areas. Their expansion
reached its limits at the beginning of the 19th century, when they were
defeated by the Neo-Brazilians. Since then their territory has dwindled ;
remnant settlements are located on the Canuma and several of its tributar-
ies (Abacaxis, Paracury, Apucitaua), in the municipios of Maues, Par-
intins, and Juriti, and on the Cururu River (a southeastern tributary of
the Tapajoz). The principal settlements are located along the middle
Tapajoz River and especially on its southeastern tributary, the Rio de
Tropas (between lat. 6° and 7° S., and long. 56° and 57° W.), Commu-
nities formerly established on the lower Tapajoz between the Rio de
Tropas and the Amazon have been absorbed or wiped out by Neo-Brazilian
settlers.
Kruse (1934) distinguishes four regional groups of the Mundurucu:
The Tapajoz River group, living on both sides of the Tapajoz jjetween
the Rio de Tropas and the Cururu River ; the Madeira River Mundurucu,
on the Secudury, a tributary of the Canuma; the Xingii River Mun-
durucu, known also as the Curuaya, on the uppermost left tributary of the
Igarape de Flecha, itself an eastern tributary of the middle Rio Curua do
Iriri; and the Juruena River Mundurucu, known also as the Njamhik-
waras. Nimuendaju (personal communication) regards the name "Ma-
deira Mundurucu" as unsuitable, since the rivers on which this group is
located do not flow into the Madeira; he also believes that the Curuaya,
* The writer is indebted to Dr. Curt Nimuendaju, who through personal knowledge of the
Mundurucu and familiarity with literary sources not available to the writer, was able to provide
additional information on the distribution and history of the tribe which has been utilized in the
present account.
Where the literature clearly indicates that a custom is no longer practiced, the past tense is
employed; otherwise the account is given in the present tense even though it is probable that much
of the culture so described no longer persists.
211
272 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
though related linguistically to the Mundurucu, are to be regarded as an
independent tribe (this volume, p, 221), and that the Njamhikwara (see
Namhicuara, p. 361) are not properly classified as Mundurucu on any
basis.
Martius (1867) reported a group related to the Mundurucu, known as
the Guajajara, who were settled on the Gurupi River near Cerzedello in
1818. The writer has found no further reference to this name in the
literature dealing with the Mundurucu. (The Guajajara-Tembe are a
tribe near the east coast of Brazil, page 137.)
According to native tradition, the Wiaunyen, at the headwaters of the
Mutum River, should be classed as a subtribe of the Mundurucu.
The Mundurucu refer to themselves as Weidyenye (our own, our peo-
ple) (Kruse, 1934). Mundurucu (Munduruku, Mundurucu, Mondu-
rucu, Mundrucu, Moturicu, etc.) is the name applied to them by the
Parintintin, in whose language it denotes a species of ant (Stromer, 1932).
A nickname widely used by Neo-Brazilians is Paiquize (Paikyce) (Mar-
tius, 1867) or Paikise, meaning "father knife" or "head-cutter." They
are sometimes called Caras Pretas ("black face"), in reference to their
facial tattooing. (See Kruse (1934), who gives an extensive list of names
used by other tribes to designate the Mundurucu.)
POPULATION
In 1887, Martius estimated the Mundurucu at 18,000 to 40,000, but
Stromer believes that, on the basis of known settlement sites, a maximum
population of 10,000 at the period of Contact is indicated. Tocantins
(1877) listed 21 villages with populations ranging from 100 to 2,600
and a total population of 18,910. According to Campana, there were
at the turn of the century about 1,400 individuals in 37 communities
in the Tapajoz area. The largest villaG^e had 700 inhabitants, and the
smallest less than a dozen. Stromer (1932) found 19 settlements with a
total of 1,200 to 1,400 inhabitants in 1931, and fewer still in 1937. Both
Campana's and Stromer's figures refer only to the population of the
main area of concentration. Kruse gives a population of 950 for the
Tapajoz group and 800 for the Canuma group.
HISTORY
The first reference to the Mundurucu was published in 1768 when Monteiro
Noronha" listed the "Maturucuf' among the tribes on the Mauees River. In 1769,
according to Manoel Baena (1885), the Mundurucu began to move northward along
the Tapajoz River, forcing out or extenninating the Jaguain (Javaim, Hy-au-ahim) ,
a warlike, cannibalistic tribe then occupying the middle Tapajoz. A "Mondruci"
settlement a day's journey below the mouth of the Arinos was reported by Almeida
Serra in 1779. The Mundurucu reached and made unsuccessful attacks upon
a The writer has not seen all of the sources mentioned in this sketch of Mundurucu history;
the material here summarized has been in part provided by Dr. Nimuendaju (personal communi-
cation).
Vol. 3] THE MUNDURUCU— HORTON 273
Santarem and Gurupa in 1780 and again in 1784. They attacked the Mura in the
Madeira River region and a few years later dispersed their southern neighbors, the
Parintintin (Cawahiwa). Their next expedition, involving an army of some 2,000
warriors, is said to have crossed the Xingu and Tocantins Rivers and to have
reached the western limits of Maranhao Province. The expedition is said to have
been defeated and turned back by the Apinaye (see Stromer, 1937), but according
to Nimuendaju, it may be doubted that the Mimdurucu actually went so far east. A
Neo-Brazilian punitive force fought a 3-day battle with them on the Rio de Tropas
(ca. 1794). Peace was established in 1795 or 1796.
Except for minor conflicts with neighboring tribes, the Mundurucu abandoned
warfare and gradually relinquished the great territory they had seized. Missions
were established on the Tapajoz in 1799 and on the Madeira in 1811. By 1885, the
Mundtirucu still living on the Madeira River had been sufficiently acculturated to be
described as "civilized" (Hartt, 1885). A few of the villages of the Tapajoz
region are said to preserve as much of the old culture as can survive without mihtary
organization, warfare, and head hunting (Stromer, 1932).
The site of the tribe prior to its northward drive along the Tapajoz is not
definitely known. Kruse (1934) believes that they lived adjacent to the Apiacd in
Mato Grosso; Martius (1867) thought that language and customs pointed to an
origin still further south. It is Nimuendaju's opinion (personal communication),
however, that the Mundurucu were originally located on the Rio de Tropas, where
their principal settlements are found today and where the punitive expedition of
1794 found their chief military strength. Mundurucu legend attributes their origin to
the town of Necodemus in this area.
CULTURE
SUBSISTENCE ACTIVITIES
The Mundurucu subsist partly on horticulture and partly on hunting,
fishing, and gathering. Tocantins' (1877) list of plants cultivated by them
includes two species of manioc, svi^eet potato, pineapple, sugarcane, various
peppers and beans, and several species of bananas. Other authors mention
cotton, tobacco, and genipa. Tocantins names some 30 noncultivated
plants utilized in Mundurucu economy. Martius (1867) says that this
tribe formerly gathered wild rice along the Madeira and Iraria Rivers.
They eat ants, larvae, and honey.
Some of the Mundurucu now have cattle. Though they do not use these
as food, they will eat the meat of domestic animals if it is offered them.
In the aboriginal culture, wild fowl were kept in cages to provide
plumage for the f eatherwork described below.
The Mundurucu are said to show great affection for their dogs. Women
suckle puppies ; when a dog dies it is given the same form of burial as a
human being.
There are no published descriptions of Mundurucu hunting techniques,
but accounts of hunting rituals indicate that tapirs, peccaries, hares, deer,
and agoutis are hunted. One ritual simulates the use of a runway of stakes
to trap peccaries. Intensive hunting occurs during the summer, when
many families occupy temporary huts in the brush.
274 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS IB.A.E. Bull. 143
Barbed arrows are used more commonly than hook and line in fishing.
Stromer's vocabulary ( 1932) includes references to basket traps and weirs.
Fish and crocodiles are drugged with poison from twigs and leaves of
the timbo.
Food preparation. — Cooking is women's work. Dishes mentioned in
the literature include roasted sweet potato, banana mush, manioc broth,
cara fruit soup, and a dish consisting of Brazil nuts which have been
washed, soaked in water, smoked, crushed, and roasted. Meat is roasted
on a babracot of green sticks or on a slanting spit. Stromer's vocabulary
includes a word for manioc press and a phrase meaning "roasting house
for manioc meal." Mortar and pestle are reported. Beverages are made
from wild beans, cacao, and manioc meal mixed with honey and water.
The Mundurucu had no native alcoholic beverages.
They raise tobacco and smoke it in the form of cigars wrapped in
tauari bark.
VILLAGES AND HOUSES
Tocantins and Farabee imply that the dwellings are arranged around
Lne periphery of an open village plaza in the center of which is the men's
house. Bates, however, mentions a settlement of 30 houses scattered for
a distance of 6 or 7 miles along a river bank; and Martins (Spix and
Martins, 1823-31, vol. 3) speaks of houses arranged in rows in a forest
clearing.
The men's house (ekga) occupied by the warriors, is a prominent feature
of the village. Tocantins describes one 100 m. (325 feet) long, covered
with thatch and open on one of its long sides. A photograph of a men's
house in Farabee (1917 a) shows a rectangular structure, smaller and more
crudely built than the dwelling house, with a gable roof and incompletely
enclosed sides. The warriors slung their hammocks from posts inside it
during the winter and from a series of posts set in three parallel rows and
united by cross beams, in the village plaza, during the summer. Although
warfare is no longer an important aspect of Munduntcn life, the men's
house still serves as a men's work place and as a dwelling for the unmarried
men. Women are not permitted to enter it.
The dwelling house (ekqa, "big house") photographed by Farabee is a
long, rectangular, windowless structure with a high thatched roof and low
walls. The men's door is in the center of the long side facing the men's
house; the women's door is directly opposite. Stromer describes the
house as a long, rectangular building with a roof sloping to the ends and
sides, and with rising peaks at each end of the roof crest, but in a later
publication (1937) he speaks of the house as "dome-shaped." In the
1850's, Bates found that most of the dwellings had conical roofs and walls
of framework filled with mud. The roof was covered with palm thatch,
and the eaves extended halfway to the ground. Martins also reported
conical roofs.
Vol. 3] THE MUNDURUCU— ilORTON 275
Within the house each family has its own partitioned quarters and a fire-
place or stone manioc oven (Tocantins, 1877). How many families
usually occupy a single house has not been reported.
CLOTHING AND ADORNMENT
The only item of Mundurucil clothing mentioned in the literature is the
three-cornered penis cover suspended from a cotton cord, but there are
several descriptions of the ceremonial feather garments for which this
tribe is famous. Many authors consider the Mundurucu to have been the
most expert featherworkers in South America within the historic period.
Featherwork. — Featherwork includes aprons, capes (attached to head-
dresses), caps, diadems, belts, girdles, bandoliers, arm bands, and leg
bands. The feathers used in this craft were at least in part obtained from
birds kept in captivity ; red, blue, green, and yellow feathers were carefully
sorted by color and size and stored in baskets or in palm-stem cylinders.
Martius was told that the Mundurucu were able to cause their parrots to
grow yellow plumes by plucking their feathers and rubbing frogs' blood
into the wounds.^ The feathers arc attached to a net fabric. Tail feathers,
an-anged in parallel rows, are used in capes and pendants ; rosettes of small
feathers, bound at the quills, are attached to the base net to cover the
attachments of long feathers; imbricated breast feathers may be used to
cover the surface of a fabric or to sheathe a cord. Decorative effects are
produced by simple alternation of colors.
A characteristic feathered staff is described as a stem of cane or wood
about 3 feet ( 1 m. ) long and 2 or 3 inches in diameter. The shaft is either
covered with long feathers laid flat against it or sheathed with fine breast
feathers. At the upper end a dense band of rosettes forms a projecting
collar; a free cluster of long plumes may project from the head of the
staff. The feathers are attached with wax and cotton thread. These ob-
jects are highly valued and when not in use are carefully stored m cylin-
drical containers. Their significance has not been reported; Martius
merely says that when he approached a Mundurucu village, stafT-bearers
came to meet him.
Tattooing and painting*. — The Mundurucu tattooing designs consist
of fine, widely-spaced parallel lines applied vertically on limbs and torso;
bands of lozenges across the upper part of the chest; occasional parallel
horizontal lines, and cross-hatchings. Around each eye is tattooed a single-
line ellipse ; curved lines are drawn around the mouth. Lines converging
toward the ears across the cheeks give the appearance of wings spread
across the face. (For illustrations of Mundurucu tattooing, see the
sketches by Hercules Florence (Steinen, 1899).)
' Nordenskiold (1924 b, p. 207) says of this custom, which has been reported from other South
American tribes, that the color change actually occurs, but zoologists attribute the change to dietary
factors.
276 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
Hartt and Martius both mention tattooing combs of palm thorns, but
Tocantins states that the operation is performed with an agouti tooth. The
skin is slashed and genipa juice is rubbed into the wound. Genipa is also
used as a paint to color areas enclosed by tattooed lines. Both sexes are
tattooed but there are slight differences in design for each. The operation
begins when the subject is about 8 years old and proceeds gradually over
a period of years. It is seldom completed before the subject has reached
the age of 20.
Hairdress. — The aboriginal hair style was the same for both sexes.
The hair was cut just above the ears and at the nape of the neck. The
crown of the head was shaved but a short, circular tuft was left above the
center of the forehead.
MANUFACTURES
Baskets, ropes, and netting. — Baskets are woven of creepers, straw,
and twigs. Ropes and cords are made of plant fibers and cotton thread.
Women beat the raw cotton with sticks to separate the fibers and twist
the thread with the aid of some sort of spindle. Cotton thread is used in
knitting net fabrics for featherwork, and in making hammocks. Fibers
from the outer surface of muriti palm leaves are sometimes used in mak-
ing hammocks.
Ceramics. — Pottery vessels, made by women, are modeled directly
from a mass of clay and are said to be of poor quality.
Weapons. — The following weapons have been mentioned but not
described : Bows, arrows of reed and of wood, poisoned war arrows,
unpoisoned hunting arrows (Martius, 1867), spears with bamboo blades,
javelins, wooden knives, hafted (stone?) axes, and war clubs. A cotton
bandage was wrapped around the knuckles of the bow hand to protect
it from the bowstring. Katzer (1901) has published illustrations of a
number of flat, polished stone ax heads, of oval or nearly quadrangular
shape, with lateral notches ; these were found archeologically in Miindu-
rucu territory. He reports that the Mundurucu still make such stone
objects, but keep them merely as valuables or as children's toys.
TRADE
Despite hostility between the Mundurucu and their neighbors, they
traded their featherwork extensively. They are said to have depended
on an unidentified northern source for arrow poison. After the advent
of the missions, manioc meal, sarsaparilla, and other forest products were
exported to Santarem in considerable quantities (Martius, 1867).
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
According to Kruse (1934), the Tapajoz River Mundurucu have a
patrilineal sib and moiety system. There are 34 sibs whose members are
Vol. 3] THE MUNDURUCU— HORTON 277
related to eponymous plants and animals. Sib ancestors are embodied in
large ceremonial trumpets called "kaduke," which women are forbidden
to see upon pain of lifelong unhappiness. Certain sibs are "related."
but the nature of the relationship has not been specified. The sibs are
grouped in exogamous moieties: a red moiety of 15 sibs and a white
moiety of 19 sibs. A list of the sib names is given by Kruse (1934).
In Mundurucu tradition these sibs were once warring tribes ; their pacifi-
cation and organization into the present tribal society is attributed to
the culture hero.
Polygyny is practiced by men of rank. Younger wives are sometimes
solicited voluntarily by the elder wife. Martins reports the levirate. He
also states that if a marriageable girl's father dies, and she finds no suit-
able husband, her mother's brother is obliged to marry her. It is perhaps
corroborative evidence of this type of marriage that in the kinship terms
given in Stromer's vocabulary, a woman addresses her brother and son-
in-law by the same term (tapo).
Patrilocal residence is indicated by Martius' report (1867) that a
woman guilty of adultery may be expelled from the house and return to
her own family. According to Hartt (1885), each family's section of
the communal house is identified by the family's color painted on the
post of the partition. No further information about this color symbolism
is given.
Each communal house is said to have its house chief and its shaman.
Above house chiefs and shamans in rank are war chiefs, chiefs of sub-
tribes (regional groups or moieties?), and a chief shaman. Bates (1892)
is the only writer who mentions a paramount tribal chief. Farabee
(1917 a) makes an obscure reference to differences in class between war
chiefs and "civil" chiefs (house chiefs?). He also states that the sons
and daughters of war chiefs intermarry.
MILITARY ORGANIZATION AND WARFARE
The central military institution was the group of warriors living in the
men's house. This house and the village were constantly guarded by a
patrol whose leader gave signals by means of a trumpet or flute. When
a war expedition was being planned, a pledge stick was passed among
the warriors by the war chief. A warrior pledged himself to join the
expedition by cutting a notch in the stick. When the war party got under
way, absolute authority was vested in its leader.
War was generally waged during the summer dry season. Whenever
feasible, each warrior was accompanied by his wife or sister, who carried
his equipment, prepared food, strung hammocks, aided him if he were
wounded, and assisted in the preliminary preparation of trophy heads.
The women, according to most authors, took no part in the actual fighting.
278 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
though Martius reports that women participated in the battle to the extent
of recovering arrows shot by the enemy and deHvering them to cheir own
warriors. He even asserts that the women "cleverly catch the arrows of
the enemy in flight" (Spix and Martius, 1823-31, 3: 1,313). The usual
method of attack was to assault the enemy village at daybreak and to
fire the huts by means of incendiary arrows. During the fight, the war
leader stood behind his warriors directing the attack. Assistants signaled
his orders on their trumpets. Women and children of the enemy were
taken prisoner; the women were later married by Mundurucu men, and
the children were adopted. But enemy warriors were killed and their
heads taken as trophies.
A Mundurucu warrior who had fought bravely but because of a wound
had failed to obtain a head, received in compensation a cotton belt from
which hung teeth removed from enemy heads. Such a belt might also
be given to the widow of a warrior killed in battle (pi. 23, right), and
her possession of it entitled her to be supported by the community. When
a warrior had been wounded, his name was not spoken for a year ; during
this time he was considered to be dead. At the end of the year, a feast
was given to reinstate him in the community.
Trophy heads were dried and colored with urucu or genipa ; the brain
cavity was filled with cotton and a carrying cord was laced through the
lips (p\. 23, left). ilfwncfwrMcw trophy heads were not shrunken. (Koser-
itz (1885) and Barbosa Rodrigues (1882 a) were both in error on this
point.)
Stromer believes that the Mundurucu were cannibalistic, basing his
belief on a passage in native text which seems to imply that some part
of the trophy head was eaten. Kruse ( 1934) denies that the Mundurucu
were in any way cannibalistic; Nimuendajii (personal communication)
doubts the credibility of Stromer's informants on this subject.
LIFE CYCLE
Birth and naming^. — According to Martius, the father keeps to his
hammock for several weeks after the birth of a child and there receives
the visits and solicitude of his neighbors. Immediately after its birth,
the child is given a totemic name. Other names are added as the child
grows older. If a man performs a heroic deed in hunting or warfare,
his heroism will be commemorated by an additional name. When children
reach their 8th year, their tatooing begins, and a boy takes up residence
in the men's house.
Puberty and marriage. — Martius (1867) says that a girl at her first
menstruation is required to undergo a long period of fasting "while ex-
posed to the smoke in the gable of the hut."
A girl may be betrothed while still quite young to a mature warrior.
Though she remains with her parents and the marriage is not consummated
Vol. 3] THE MUNDURUCU— HORTON 279
until she reaches puberty, the prospective husband assumes the responsi-
bility of providing food for her and her parents. A younger man may
obtain a wife by giving several years' bride service in the household of
the girl's parents.
Death and burial. — An "executioner" was pointed out to Martius,
whose duty it was to despatch the fatally ill and the senile. Attribution
of this custom to the Munduructi is said to be widespread among
neighboring tribes.
When a death occurs, the maternal relatives of the deceased cut their
hair, blacken their faces, and conduct a prolonged wailing for the dead.
The corpse, wrapped in a hammock, is placed upright with flexed knees
in a cylindrical grave under the floor of the dwelling. Grave goods con-
sist of ornaments and other small objects. Skeletons of men of high
status are exhumed and burned after the flesh has decayed; the ashes
are buried in jars.
When a warrior is killed on a distant battlefield, his head is taken
back to the village and put on display with his ornaments, trumpet, and
weapons. After a feast in honor of the deceased, the head is suspended
from the neck of his mother, widow, or sister, and his fellow warriors
pledge to avenge his death. During this ceremony the shaman is isolated
in a special hut where he blows the sacred trumpet (kaduke). The cere-
mony is repeated at yearly intervals, terminating with the fourth per-
formance, when the head is finally buried in the house of the deceased,
RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES
At the beginning of winter, the Mundurucu perform a ceremony which
on alternate years invokes success in hunting and in fishing. The shaman,
isolated in a special hut, propitiates the guardian spirits of game animals
and fish. A ventriloquistic dialogue in which the voices of the animals
are heard proceeding from the hut informs the people of the shaman's
success in obtaining the favor of the spirits. OflFerings are made to the
skulls of animals and fish. The ceremony is directed by a feast leader
who is both a prominent warrior and a good singer. Tocantins (1877)
reports a similar annual ceremony to propitiate the spirits of maize
and manioc.
Farabee (1917 a) describes a feast held at the first full moon in May
to celebrate the first hunt following the birth of the April litters of
peccaries. After a feast in which young peccaries are eaten, there is
a dance in which the performers imitate a herd of peccaries. Children
run among tlie dancers like young peccaries while the older people
imitate the sound of peccaries feeding; a dancer representing an old boar
protecting the herd wrestles with another dancer who plays the part of
a jaguar. The boar succeeds in holding oflf the jaguar while the herd
of peccaries escapes.
280 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
In another dance the peccaries are pursued by hunters and their dogs.
The peccaries take refuge in a hole in the ground. The hunters then
simulate the construction of a trap by standing with legs astraddle to
represent an alley of stakes; the peccaries try to escape between the
lines of stakes and are killed by a hunter at the end of the alley.
An abbreviated description of a peccary festival is given by Stromer
(1932). This is a hunting ceremony in which the skulls of animals
play a role. Sexual intercourse is performed ritually by the participants.
At one point in the ceremony, the performers dance on a heap of peccary
hair while they sing an invocation of success in peccary hunting.
At a special men's festival in honor of the sib ancestors the sacred
trumpets are blown. At the conclusion of the ceremony, a special bev-
erage is poured through the trumpet into a cup and drunk by the partici-
pants. The ceremony, performed by men alone since women are not
permitted to see the trumpets, is said to propitiate the sib ancestors
and to obtain their good will toward their descendants.
At the tree festival a tree is set up in the center of the dwelling house ;
the participants stand around it while the shaman smokes tobacco and
invokes on the house the protection of Karusakaibo, the creator god.
SHAMANISM AND SORCERY
The shaman determines the most favorable time for war parties, exor-
cises evil spirits, takes a leading part in ceremonies, cures the sick, detects
sorcerers, and intervenes to terminate eclipses of the sun. Illness is
believed to be caused by the intrusion of a worm into the patient's body,
or by sorcery. The shaman cures the intrusion by blowing smoke on the
patient's body and sucking out the worm. When many deaths or much
sickness occur the malevolence of a sorcerer is suspected; the shaman
detects the sorcerer and informs the chief of his identity. The chief ap-
points two warriors to follow the sorcerer until they have a favorable
opportunity to kill him. Some hints as to the technique of sorcery are
given in Stromer's vocabulary. He records the word, yamain, meaning
"to cut off the head and set it back again," and the word, yakut, "hole in
the earth in which to bury the head" — both with reference to the practice
of sorcery.
Sorcery is said to be virtually the sole cause of homicide among the
Mundurucu. Adultery is punished by the expulsion of the guilty persons.
When two men become antagonistic, one of them takes his hammock and
goes to live in the men's house of another village.
MYTHOLOGY
The creator god and culture hero of Mundurucu mythology is Karusa-
kaibo (Caru-Sacaibe (Tocantins, 1877)); Karusakaibe (Kruse, 1934);
Vol. 3] THE MUNDURUCU— HORTON 281
Karusakaibu (Farabee, 1917 a). His wife, Sikrida (Stromer, 1932) ;
Chicridha (Tocantins, 1877), is a Mundurucu woman. Korumtau
(Carutau (ibid.)) is his eldest son and his second born is Anukaite
(Hanu-Acuate (ibid.)). Karusakaibo's companion and helper is Daiiru
(Rayru (ibid.)), an armadillo.
Conflict between Karusakaibo and his sons and companion is a recur-
rent theme in several myths reported by Stromer and Tocantins. In one
story, Anukaite is seduced by his mother. Karusakaibo learns of the
incest and in anger pursues his son. Anukaite delays his flight to have
sexual intercourse with several importunate women whom he meets on
the way; his father overtakes him and transforms him into a tapir. The
insatiable women are transformed into fish.
On another occasion the offenders are Daiiru and Korumtau. Their
offense is not explained clearly in the account (Stromer, 1932) but ap-
pears to involve an improper relationship between Korumtau and some
peccaries, for which Daiiru is partly responsible. Again the guilty are
pursued by Karusakaibo; to evade his father, Korumtau transforms him-
self successively into a peccary, a cricket, a bird, and a monkey. Once he
is wounded by an arrow shot by the pursuing father, but the armadillo
draws the arrow from the wound. The animals of the forest give aid by
warning of the father's approach. Finally, the two fugitives throw them-
selves into a body of water and escape.
The Mundurucu origin myth tells of the emergence of mankind from
under the ground. According to one version (Farabee, 1917 a), Karusa-
kaibo had made the world but had not created men. One day Daiiru, the
armadillo, offended the creator and was forced to take refuge in a hole in
the ground. Karusakaibo blew into the hole and stamped his foot on the
earth. Daiiru was blown out of the hole by the rush of air. He reported
that people were living in the earth. He and Karusakaibo made a cotton
rope and lowered it into the hole. The people began to climb out. When
half of them had emerged, the rope broke and half remained underground,
where they still live. The sun passes through their country from west to
east when it is night on the earth ; the moon shines there when the earth
has moonless nights. According to another version of the tale (Tocantins,
1877) , the creator stamped his foot at the site of the village of Necodemos ;
White people, Indians, and Negroes emerged from a fissure in the ground.
The creator tattooed the Mundurucu like himself ; the Whites and Negroes
scattered. Karusakaibo then showed the Mundurucu how to raise manioc,
maize, cotton, and other plants and how to utilize them. It was he who
traced the petroglyphs now found on certain cliffs in the region of
Necodemos. Another origin-of-agriculture myth is given in a text gath-
ered by Stromer (1937).
Kruse (1934) reports a myth in which the women are said to have
once been in possession of the men's house, while the men lived in the
282 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
dwelling house. The men did all the work, including such women's tasks
as fetching firewood, providing manioc, and baking manioc meal. The
woman ruler of the tribe and two companions found three sacred trumpets
and secretly practiced playing on them in the forest. When the men dis-
covered the secret, they took the trumpets away from the women. The
women were sent to the dwelling house and were forbidden to look again
upon the trumpets, w^hile the men took possession of the men's house.
Both Stromer (1932) and Farabee (1917 a) report a myth which tells
that the sun once fell upon the earth and destroyed its inhabitants by fire.
Five days after the fire, the creator sent a vulture from the sky to see if the
earth had cooled, but the vulture remained to eat the bodies of men who
had been killed. After 4 days a blackbird was sent, but it remained to eat
the charred buds of the trees. Four days later, the creator sent a dove,
which returned with earth between its claws. Then the creator came
down and recreated men and animals of white potter's clay.*
LORE AND LEARNING
A few miscellaneous cosmological beliefs were obtained by Farabee:
Karusakaibo created the sun by transforming a young man who had red
eyes and long white hair. The moon is a transformed virgin with white
skin. The rain spirit makes thunder by rolling a pestle in a mortar. The
constellations are men and animals in a great savanna. An eclipse of the
sun is due to a great fire which sweeps over its surface. A powerful
shaman once ascended to the sun and put out the fire. Now, when an
eclipse occurs, the shaman sends his yakpu to clear the sun. The yakpn
(a fragment of meteoric iron) falls to the earth as a ball of fire. After
it cools, the shaman puts it away until the next eclipse.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Baena, 1885; Barbosa Rodrigues, 1882 a; Bates, 1892; Campana, 1904-06; Chand-
less, 1862, 1870; Coudreau, H., 1897 a; Farabee, 1917 a; Hartt, 1885; Horschelmann,
1918-20; Katzer, 1901; Koseritz, 1885; Kruse, 1934; Martius, 1867; Nimuendaju,
1938; Nordenskiold, 1924 b; Spix and Martius, 1823-31, vol. 3; Steinen, 1899;
Stromer, 1932, 1937; Tocantins, 1877; Wood, 1868-70.
* For texts of some of the myths given in condensed form above, see Stromer (1932); for other
myths, not included in this account, see Stromer (ibid.) and Tocantins (1877). Farabee (1917 a)
also gives three animal fables which he attributes to the Munduriicii.
THE CAWAHIB, PARINTINTIN, AND THEIR NEIGHBORS
By Curt Nimuendaju
THE OLD CAWAHIB
Cawahih (Kawahib, Cawahiwa, Cahahiha, Cabaiva, Caiihuahipe,
Cahuahiva) is the 18th- and early 19th-century name of a people who
later split into some six groups or tribes, among them the Parintintin and
the Tupi-Caivahib (pp. 299-305). (Lat. 10° S., long. 58° W.; map 1,
No. 2; map 3.)
In the 18th century, a tribe named Cabahiba Hved on the upper
Tapajoz River, between the confluence of the Arinos and Juruena Rivers
and the mouth of the Sao Manoel River. Information about this tribe is
scanty, partly because it never lived on the banks of the great river,
unlike its neighbors, the Apiacd. The oldest reference to it, in 1797,
appears in an anonymous manuscript (1857) with the laconic entry,
"Cabahibas — Lingua Geral : situated below [the Apiacas], near the said
confluence [Arinos and Juruena]." Subsequently, when the tribe may no
longer have existed as a unit in that region, it is mentioned by writers
who evidently based their statements on older data. The Cabahiba are
not mentioned on the upper Tapajoz by any of the travelers of the first
three decades of the 19th century who wrote on the Apiacd, but they are
noted in other territory. The following is quoted from a list which
Castelnau (1850-59, vol. 3) compiled in 1844, but which evidently refers
to the situation at the beginning of the century : "The Cabaivas cultivate
considerable plantations to the west of the Juruena, but they are located
much farther from the river than the nations mentioned before (Tame-
pugas, Urupu3'as, Macuris, and Birapagaparas)." Manoel Ayres Cazal
(1707, p. 256) mentions them in 1817 in the same manner, "To the north
of the latter ( Appiacas) live the Cabahybas who speak the same language."
In 1819, some Apiacd informed Canon Guimaraes that the Caiihuahipe
{Cazvahib) lived on the Paramutanga (parana-mitan, "red river," i.e.,
"Sangue River"), a tributary of the Juruena, and that they used silver
ornaments. Melgago in his "Apontamentos" (1884) locates them ap-
proximately in the same region, on the Campos dos Pareceis, between the
Arinos and Juruena Rivers. Another Apiacd told Castelnau in 1814
653333—47—21 qQQ
284 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
that the Cahuahiva lived among the tribes along the Juruena, ,but were
driven from the river shores by the Apiacd. There is no further mention
in the literature of the name Cabahiba, but V. P. Vasconcellos' expedition
down the Sangue River in 1915 (Rondon, 1916) found unknown and
hostile Indians on its lower portions. The behavior of these Indians
suggested that they were a Tupi tribe, as Rondon believed, and not
Nambicuara, as Vasconcellos thought.
As the name Cazvahib gradually disappeared from the writings about
Mato Grosso, Parintintin began to appear in Para at the beginning of
the 19th century. Parintintin (pari, "non-Mimdurucu Indian," rign-rign,
"fetid") is the name given the Cawahib by the Mundurucu, its mortal
enemies and neighbors to the north.
The Mundurucu originally were concentrated in the region of the Rio
das Tropas, but, since 1750, they have expanded mainly at the expense
of the Cawahib. The Mundurucu, according to their tradition, expelled
the Parintintin from the Cururu River Basin. They continued to perse-
cute them until the beginning of the 20th century, and no doubt caused
them to split into six isolated groups between the Sao Manoel-Paranatinga
and the Madeira Rivers. It has been established that two of the most
important of these, the Parintintin of the Madeira River and the "Tupi"
of the Machado, call themselves Cawahib. Two others, one at the head-
waters of the Machadinho River and the other in the interior between the
upper Tapajoz and Sao Manoel Rivers, do not, judging by the few known
words of their language, differ from the other groups. Historic and
ethnographic data indicate that the fifth, that on the Sangue River, is
probably also a Cawahib group. Of the sixth, on the upper Bararaty
River, it is known only that they are hostile to civilized people and that
they occupy a part of the former territory of the old Parintintin; it is just
barely possible that they form part of the Cawahib tribe.
THE PARINTINTIN
TERRITORY, LANGUAGE, AND HISTORY
Names of the Parintintin are: Self -designation, Cawahib; Cawahizva
(kab, kawa, "wasp"); in Mundurucu, Pari-rign-rign, "fetid Indians";
in Mauc, Paritin, from the Mundurucu term designating all hostile In-
dians; in Mura of the Autaz River, Wdhai; in Mura of the Madeira
River, Toepehe, Topehe (from Mundurucu taypehe=penis?) ; in Pirahd
Toypehe; in Tord, Toebehe (from the Mura) or Nakasefi, "fierce"; in
Matanawi, Itoebehe (from the Tord) or Tapakard; and in the Lingua
Geral of the past century, Yawaretd-Tapiiya, "Jaguar Indians."
Until 1922, the Parintintin occupied the region between the Madeira
River, the Amazonian parts of the Machado and Marmellos Rivers, and
the right tributary of the latter, the Rio Branco.
u m.
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Map 3. — The tribes of Central Brazil. Solid underlining, modern locations;
broiien underlining, extinct portions of tribes; otherwise, date of location is
given under the tribal name. Tribes not underlined are extinct. (Compiled by
Curt Nimuendajd.)
aUU»— 4S (F>cap.2M)
Vol. 3] THE CAWAHIB, PARINTINTIN— NIMUENDAJU 285
The Parintintin language is pure Tupi, and differs from the upper
Machado Tupi only in some phonetic variations. In the Parintintin
vocabulary compiled by Severiano da Fonseca (1880-81) in 1878,
only a few words can ,be identified, the remainder being incomprehensible.
In 1922, Garcia de Freitas (1926) took the first vocabulary of 127
words, and in December 1922, the present author (Nimuendaju, 1924,
p. 262) collected a vocabulary of 328 entries.
In 1922, the number of Parintintin was estimated at 250. Garcia de
Freitas (1926) gave a total of 500 for that year, but included two adjacent
groups. The existence of one of these is in doubt, and the number of the
other may be less than the author thought. At present, the Parintintin,
excluding the Apairande, who still keep aloof, number about 120. They
are divided into three groups: (1) That on the Igarape Ipixuna, a
tributary of Lake Uruapiara; (2) the Tres Casas settlement; and (3)
the Calama group. The members of the last two are rubber gatherers
(Garcia de Freitas, 1926).
Parintintin were first mentioned as a cannibal tribe in the Madeira region in 1829
(Castelnau, 1850, 3: 164). They occupied territory that belonged previously to the
Tord, Mura and Pirahd. The earliest report of Parintintin hostilities known to the
present author was in 1852. Since then, the Parintintin have probably made at
least one assault each year on the civilized people, who were always more or less
the losers. They became the scourge of the Madeira.
Cruel guerrilla warfare dragged on for long decades. Punitive expeditions by
the Neo-Brazilians, or by the Mimdurucii under the orders of the latter, did not
improve matters. Colonel Rondon instigated an attempt to pacify the Parintintin,
but his emissary fell into a pitfall and was seriously injured. In 1922, after several
ineffectual attacks, the Parintintin made their first contact with the personnel of the
Servigo de ProtecQao aos Indios at the Station on the Maicy River, a tributary of
the Marmellos River on the left bank. Since then, the tribe has not again attacked
the civilized people on the Madeira River. It has, however, suffered great losses
from disease acquired through contact with civilization. Part of the survivors
went into service under the rubber workers on the Madeira River, and another part
remained peacefully on the Igarape Ipixima.
CULTURE
SUBSISTENCE ACTIVITIES
The Parintintin practice extensive agriculture. They have a variety
of maize so tender that it may be eaten raw. They also grow sweet
manioc, sweet potatoes, bananas, papaya, urucu, and cotton. Formerly,
they did not know tobacco or beans, not even by name.
They are good hunters, though fishing is of greater importance. Tapir
is their favorite game, and they relish monkeys but fear losing their
arrows on them. To catch birds, they set out sticks covered with the
viscous milk of guanani (Tomorita sp. ?) (Nunes Pereira, 1940, p. 36).
They eat batrachians.
286 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
The Parintintin take fish with weirs placed across the outlets of lakes,
and with bows and arrows shot from their canoes. In suitable places,
a fisherman awaits his chance on a platform built on a limb overhanging
the river. Frequently, these Indians make decoys — full-size figures of
fishes carved of tree bark and painted with charcoal — and hold them
underwater by a long, slender rod stuck into the river bank. They lack
fishhooks.
The Parintintin have no domesticated animals and even fear small
dogs, but they keep large numbers of wild birds.
They roast maize in ashes or pound it in a mortar. They wet the
flour and make it into balls the size of a fist, which are baked in embers
and again crushed in the mortar. The dry flour thus prepared is eaten
dry with meat or fish, or it is cooked as a porridge. The Parintintin
also make flat cakes (beiju) roasted in embers. Their mortar is the
vertical, cylindrical type. The pestle is a long, slender stick. When
traveling, they carry small portable mortars.
HOUSES AND VILLAGES
The huts are open rectangular sheds 20 m. (about 65 ft.) or more
long and 6 m. (20 ft.) high. The roof sometimes extends beyond the
hut to form a veranda. Inside, at irregular intervals between the uprights,
there are horizontal poles from which the hammocks are hung. The
hammocks are small because the Indians sleep doubled-up on their sides.
A fire always burns inside.
The huts are grouped at random, with no more than four in each
settlement.
DRESS AND ORNAMENTS
A man's complete costume consists of four pieces. (1) The penis
sheath is worn by all Indians. It is made of at least 12 overlapping
leaves of aruma (Ischnosiphon ovatus), partly held together by two
stitches. The edges are doubled, so as not to chafe the skin, and the
whole piece before being put in place is rectangular in shape. The piece
is wrapped around the whole penis to form a cylinder, the edges meeting
on the underside. It is tied with a piece of cotton thread around the
upper end and another at the head of the penis. To remove the sheath
for urinating or washing, the threads are untied. No Indian over 12
years old may go about without this sheath ("kaa"). Penis sheaths
of exaggerated length (up to 40 cm.) are doubtless the basis for the
legend of a tribe whose members, like the Parintintin kaa, hang to their
knees. The Mundurucu called this tribe the "Taipe-sisi." (2) Some
men wear a narrow belt of embira, tied in front so that its short fringes
hang over the pubis. (3) All men wear one or more belts, each made
of several rings of buriti stalks which are firmly joined in front but
Vol. 3j THE OAWAHIB, PARINTINTIN— NIMUENDAJU 287
hang loose behind, partly covering the buttocks. (4) Arm bands are
described below.
Boys 8 to 12, who do not yet use the penis sheath, wear under their
buriti belts two fringed embira aprons, one over the other. Smaller
children go about completely naked or wear a small belt of buriti stalk.
Sometimes people wrap embira around the ankles as protection against
snakes.
Women have no clothing, but generally tie a cotton thread below the
knee and another above the ankle.
Soon after birth, the earlobes of both sexes are pierced. Ordinarily
nothing is worn through the hole, but some men put a little stick through,
or, on special occasions, a little bamboo stick, the end of which rests on
the shoulder, or a feather tuft.
Feather ornaments, used exclusively by men and older boys, are not
show3\ They comprise feather diadems and neck feathers. The diadems
consist of a wide band of feathers of different colors, covered at the
base by a narrower band of black feathers. The whole is mounted on
a double ring of buriti stalks, with a circular elastic net made of cotton
threads. The neck pieces are made of straw, feather tufts, cords, light
sticks covered with fine feathers, and macaw tail feathers, from the
points of which fine feathers or human hair are hung. Another ornament
exclusively for men is a babassii straw armband, 3 cm. (1.2 inches) wide,
decorated with small feathers glued to it and with tufts and long strings
of feathers. Other ornaments are made of embira, with long fringes,
or of tubular bones. Children wear necklaces of a great variety of ma-
terials and a characteristic ornament consisting of two teeth of a large
mammal, e. g., jaguar, peccary, or tapir, symmetrically tied or merely
held by a string. The only women's ornament is a string of beads of
tucuma and of bone.
The Parintintm are always well-groomed and keep their hair combed.
Eyebrows and lashes, but not body hair, are plucked. Both sexes cut
their hair in a circle, so that bangs fall a little above the eyebrows and
the top of the ears are covered. Some women wear their hair long,
tied with a cotton thread behind. Hair trimmings are carefully collected
to avoid their use in witchcraft. Combs are small and one-sided, the
teeth being held between two pairs of sticks by a cotton wrapping.
Tattooing is done with genipa dye. On men, it consists of three lines
from each ear, one to the upper lip, one to the corner of the mouth, and
one to the chin, with lines encircling the mouth, and a fishtail design at
each corner of the mouth. Women have a rectangular Greek fret on
the chin, the same length as the mouth with a wide line on each side
from the fret to the ear. They also have a fine line over the eye and
a horizontal line extending from the corner of the eye. Practically all
men have a jaguar tattooed on the inside of the forearm and a pacu
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
(Prochilodus sp.) on the outside. Commonly the left side of a man's
back, from the shoulder blade down, has two vertical rows of 10 to 15
rectangles of solid color. Other tatooed figures vary considerably from
one individual to another.
As pigments for body paint, the Parintintin use clay for white, urucu
for red, genipa for dark blue, and burnt Brazil nuts for black, the last
restricted to men. Women prefer urucu, with which they sometimes
paint themselves from head to foot. For warfare and for welcoming
a guest, which is done by simulating an attack, men paint a band 3
fingers wide from one ear to the other, across the mouth. They also
paint their forearms and trace horizontal stripes or irregular spots on
either side of their chest and thighs. Some smear black on themselves
without design. Certain warriors go into combat entirely covered with
white, presenting a ghostly appearance.
TRANSPORTATION
The Parintintin canoe is made of a section of "jutahy" bark (Hyine-
naea) , with raised edges. It is reinforced by long poles along the sides, by
inside cross pieces, which serve as seats, and by liana ties at the ends
and from side to side. The bottom of the canoe is covered with a
mat made of sticks. These craft are 5 to 7 m. (about 16^ to 23j^ ft.)
long and 0.5 meter (ly^ ft.) wide. In spite of their crude construction,
they can travel at a high speed. It seems that formerly the Parintintin,
like the Apiaca, used only thick bamboos split in half as paddles, but
later they stole so many paddles from the civilized people that they
rarely used their original type.
MANUFACTURES
Basketry. — The Parintintin have few baskets, except temporary ones
woven of green palm leaves. The best are made of babassu straw, with
a round bottom. Fire fans are pentagonal, the larger ones being used
also as mats when sitting by the fire (apparently the Parintintin have no
benches). Sieves for maize flour are bowl-shaped.
Spinning and weaving. — The spindle used for cotton has a small
button on top of the shank and a jaboti (Testudo tabulata) shell whorl
with incised decoration. The Parintintin may formerly have woven
slings for carrying children, but at the time of their pacification, all were
made of stolen cloth or of embira. Hammocks are made of cotton, and
are twined ; the interval between the weft elements varies greatly. Sep-
arate strands are not added at the ends to form suspension loops (sobre-
punhos) ; instead, the long, strong warp strands of tauari (Couratari sp.)
fibers are gathered into a bundle which is doubled back to form a loop.
Vol. 3] THE CAWAHIB, PARINTINTIN— NIMUENDAJU 289
Pottery. — No clay pot was ever seen among the Parintintin, but this
tribe knows the Tupi name for pot (nyaepepo, a word formed with nyae,
"clay"), so that the ceramic art must have been lost only recently.
Gourds. — The only vessels are made of calabashes and gourds. The
latter were made with a narrow orifice for water containers, and with
a wide opening and a suspension cord for holding small items. Calabashes
are blackened inside, but lack exterior decoration. Cracks are repaired
by sewing with thread.
Weapons. — The main weapon is the bow and arrow. The bows are
made of pau d'arco (Tecoma sp.) and are over 2 m. (6 ft.) long, with a
semicircular cross section, and the belly side flat or slightly con-
cave. The string is three-ply of embira or tauari (Couratari sp.). In
shooting, the bow is held diagonally, the upper end slightly to the right.
Children's toy bows are either round or semicircular in cross section.
Arrows are of three types: (1) A fishing arrow, of wild cane
(Gynerium) , approximately 2.5 m. (8^ ft.) long, without feathering and
with one to three heads barbed with iron nails; (2) a small game arrow,
used only occasionally in fishing or warfare, 1.5 m. (4^ ft.) long, with a
slender shaft of camayuva {Guadua sp.), with tangential (arched) feather-
ing, and tipped with a wooden rod, which is serrated on one side or cut
with a series of fine overlapping cones; (3) a large game and war arrow,
with a heavy camayuva shaft and a lanceolate bamboo head 40 cm. (16 in.)
long. The last may have a barb on each side of the proximal end, two
pairs of barbs, a powerful continuous row of teeth on one side, or no barbs
at all. The point is extremely sharp, and the edges are made razor-sharp
by means of an instrument consisting of a cutia {Dasyprocta aguti) tooth
attached to a handle. Now and then the hafted end of the point has
a beautiful fa.bric of black and white hairs of the peccary {Tayassu tajacu).
Arrow feathers are generally of mutum {Crax) and royal sparrow hawk,
and are 30 cm. (12 in.) long, flush and unspiralled; the wrappings are
covered with fine throat feathers of the toucan. The 10 or 12 intermediate
ties consist of very fine threads.
On two occasions the Parintintin used plain round sticks, 1.5 m. (4}4
ft. ) long, as clubs and discarded them afterward. They use bamboo daggers
with sharp blades like arrowheads and the internodal end as the handle.
These are the original knives which they used for various purposes,
including cutting their hair.
Fire. — Fire is made with a hand-rotated drill and a hearth which has
three slightly concave surfaces. The drill penetrates one of the lateral
surfaces through to the bottom surface, where the accumulated powder
ignites. Lacking this apparatus, an arrow shaft and bamboo arrowhead
are used. Charred cotton serves as tinder.
290 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION
Moieties. — The Parintintin are divided in two exogamic, unlocalized
patrilineal moieties: Mitii (Mitua, mitu) and Kwandu {Harpia
harpy ja, royal hawk). It is inconceivable to them that there could
exist any person, even a foreigner, who was neither a Mitu nor a Kwandu.
For a warlike people, it is strange that the Parintintin at the time of the
pacification had no chiefs except family heads, whose authority was not
absolute. During combat, warriors acted in unison only until the first
round of arrows was discharged, after which each did what he pleased and
fought if he had courage, or else ran off.
Property. — At the time of the pacification, the majority of the
Parintintin were admittedly incorrigible thieves who employed all sorts
of tricks to steal the property of others openly or by stealth. Even within
the tribe, individuals stole from one another, trusting their fellow tribesmen
much less than the personnel sent to pacify them. This tendency was
noticeable even among children.
Modesty. — By the standards of civilized people, men behaved quite
decently, although some individuals enjoyed obscene gestures and sayings.
Women and girls, however, behaved with complete decency, and never
made their nudity obvious. The men are ashamed to uncover their penis
and, when bathing, turn their backs to others as they remove the casing
to wash the member. They practice their physiological acts out of sight
of others.
Names. — Nothing is known about the manner of naming. People
change their names frequently. They do not hesitate either to tell their
own names or to ask those of others. Some names of men are : Tawari
(Conratari sp.?), Mohangi (mohan, "medicine"), Mboavaim (mbo, active
particle, ava, "man," im, negative), and Wiratib (wira, "bird," tib, "be").
WARFARE AND CANNIBALISM
War. — Before the pacification in 1922, the Parintintin lived in constant
struggle with everyone outside the tribe. They had not the slightest
respect for the life and property of others. For young people, who in
general were turbulent, presumptuous, and disrespectful, war was not a
deplorable necessity, but a favorite sport.
The Parintintin attacked at any season and time of day or night, though
most war was waged in summer. War parties never exceeded 20 men.
With their bows ready, they would pounce upon the enemy without the
slightest notice and with incredible speed, taking advantage of any open
path which permitted unobstructed maneuvers. After their first round of
arrows was sent through the enemies' straw huts, they burst out with war
cries and discharged more rounds. The terrified inhabitants, seeking to
escape, often ran directly into the arrows. Those who fell were promptly
pierced by a stream of arrows, tramped upon, and beheaded. The victims
Vol. 3j THE CAWAHIB, PARINTINTIN— NIMUENDAJU 291
occasionally saved the situation with firearms, but often the Parintintin
won in spite of such defense. If they did not win on the first attempt,
however, they withdrew immediately.
Whenever possible, the Parintintin carried away their victims' heads and
sometimes arms and legs. On the way home, they strewed the trail with
caltrops made of bamboo arrowheads removed from the shafts, and, at
the entrance of their villages, they dug carefully camouflaged pitfalls,
bristling with bamboo points. The Parintintin never reared captive
children.
Warriors, especially young ones, decorated themselves for battle with
beautiful feather crowns of vivid colors and with long neck feathers. Many
painted themselves black with charcoal from chestnuts or with white clay.
At the time of their pacification, the Parintintin were fighting only the
Neo-Brazilians and the Pirahd.
Cannibalism.— For a long time after the pacification, the Parintintin
did not deny that they were cannibals. The latest case of cannibalism
occurred in 1924 when they killed a family of Pirahd (Garcia de Freitas,
1926, p. 70 s.). They saved a piece of the victim's flesh for the repre-
sentative of the Servico de Protecgao aos Indios, who saw them at that
time dancing with the roasted and shriveled hand of their victim.
Trophies. — The Parintintin were passionate head hunters. The victims'
heads were defleshed and cooked to remove every bit of flesh and to loosen
the teeth. The teeth were made into a necklace that was given to one of
the warriors. The skull was washed, tied with embira strips, and provided
with a cord loop by means of which it was held over the left shoulder
during dances. When visitors arrived, the warriors performed with the
skulls. Immediately after the war greeting (see below), each warrior
mimicked the struggle with the enemy whose skull he carried. He then ran
back and forth in front of the visitors, singing a war song, during which
he was followed by two young people who presented gourds filled with
honey and water to the visitors. The trophy and the gourds were then
placed in the front, and everybody shouted and shot arrows at the trophy.
Then followed dances around the trophy, accompanied by bamboo flutes.
Finally, others danced with the trophy, reciting their own deeds.
According to Garcia, it was the custom to sacrifice prisoners in the
plaza, killing them by means of a special spear (more probably a pointed
club was used).
ETIQUETTE
When Indians from some other group approached, the inhabitants of
the hut hastily put on their war paint, while chewing charcoal, and re-
ceived the visitors with gestures and shouts of, "Let me kill !", They shot
arrows over the heads of the visitors and uttered war cries. Then the
household head went forward, put his hand on the shoulder of the first
292 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
visitor to come to him, stamped his foot, and shouted a long speech of
welcome in his ear. After this, they accepted the visitors and removed
their war paint.
LIFE CYCLE
Birth. — When a child is born, its father and relatives utter war cries
and shoot arrows.
Childhood and puberty. — Children are usually well treated, but oc-
casional brutal treatment was observed. When their fringed aprons are
replaced for the first time by penis covers, boys go into the jungle to hunt
and bring home their kill. Before the penis casing is put on, mandibles
(not stings) of tucandeira ants are applied to them. Then the youths
approach the house, where they are greeted with war cries, and arrows
are shot (Garcia de Freitas, 1926, p. 68).
A girl's first menstruation is announced by war cries and arrow shoot-
ing. According to Garcia de Freitas, girls 10 to 12 years of age are
publicly deprived of their virginity, in spite of their objections; in one
case, two Indians traded their sisters for this ceremony. The faces and
bodies of young people, especially young men, bear the marks of bites and
scratches received in amorous encounters, for it seems that before marriage
there is much liberty for both sexes.
Marriage. — Marriage is arranged by the parents. The groom some-
times receives the bride while she is still a little girl and rears her. After
a long time with his first wife, a man may take another, but Garcia
noticed only three cases of bigamy in the whole tribe. Young men have
a certain aversion to marriage because of the work entailed by famil}^ life.
During the pacification period, no man ever showed disrespect toward his
wife, but a woman was seen to grasp her husband by his hair and slap
him, while he merely hid his face. On overland trips, the husband carries
his wife's as well as his own basket of goods, and on water he alone paddles
the canoe.
Before their pacification, the Parintintin accorded old people little
consideration.
Burial. — The body is painted with urucu, decorated with a feather
diadem, wrapped in the hammock with its legs drawn up and its hands
placed between the thighs, and buried in a square grave, 1.5 m. {Ay2 ft.)
deep, in the house. Before the open grave, the possessions of the deceased
are distributed among his friends and relatives, but his war arrows are
broken and burned. The grave is filled and the earth beaten down with
the feet and smoothed with water. Mortars and heavy tree trunks are
placed over the grave to protect it against the evil spirit. The women cry
much, and the men maintain an attitude of sorrow.
Vol. 3] THE CAWAHIB, PARINTINTIN— NIMUBNDAJU 293
ESTHETIC AND RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Art. — The best Parintintin pictorial art is tattooing. Crude figures of
animals and people are sometimes cut on flutes and horns. Wood carvings
are crude and at times of monstrous ugliness.
Music and dancing. — A triumphal dance, held after receiving some
object, consists of eight steps forward, a half-turn, and eight steps back,
etc., and always ends with two double tones on the panpipes and a war
shout. It is accompanied by improvised singing.
The Parintintin dance in a circle to the bamboo clarinet (tore). Each
man keeps his arms around the shoulders of the man next to him and
dances in this position, jumping with both feet together. Women occa-
sionally take part in it, passing slightly hunched under the arms of the men.
Musical instruments. — The bamboo flute is 1.5 m. (5 ft.) long. The
panpipes have 7 to 15 pipes. A bamboo flute, one finger thick and closed
on one end by an internode, has a rectangular opening on side for the
mouth and another near the open end for the fingers. Other flutes are
double, connected by the common internode in the middle. Signal trumpets
are made of thick bamboo and are blown through a side opening. A
child's toy consists of a whistle made of the skull of an acouti-puru
(Sciurus sp.) with all openings, except the foramen magnum, plugged
with wax.
Narcotics. — The Parintintin formerly did not know tobacco, and at
first it was so repellent to them that they would not go near a person who
was smoking.
Nunes Pereira (1940) mentions the invention of cauim, or chicha, by
the wife of the culture hero, Bahira, who toasted maize, chewed it up,
put it in a gourd with water and honey and let it ferment many days.
According to Garcia de Freitas (1926), the Parintintin sang to the
Sun. The song lasts the whole night, until sunrise, during which time
they drink only chicha, being forbidden to eat. They regard the moon as
the protector of crops, believing that it waters them at the right time.
Ghosts that cause nightmares are sent to "heavenly mansions" by means
of chants. They are carried there by the Kaihii spirit (macaco coata,
Ateles sp.)
MYTHOLOGY
Some Parintintin myths have been transcribed by Nunes Pereira
(1940), but they seem incomplete and contain some mistakes. The prin-
cipal character is the culture hero, Bahira, the equivalent of the Apiaca
Hairy and the Tupinamba and Temhe Maira. Undoubtedly, Bahira had
a companion, like most culture heroes, but Nunes Pereira assumed him to
294 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
be a different character according to the occasion. The character called
an "Indian" by the same author is none other than Azon of the Tembe
and Anyai of the Apapocuva-Guarani, as proved by the episode in which
Bahira fools him during the fishing party and the scalping. Some of
Bahira's adventures are based purely on Tupi themes, e.g., the theft of
fire from the vultures. The motif of the pursuing devil, who was killed
tossing a cluster of anaja (Maximiliana regia) on his head, occurs also
among the Shipaya, The story of the man who is imprisoned on a tree
or in a cliff near the nest of a bird is known to the Tembe and to various
Ge tribes {Apinaye, Canella, Sherente, Cayapo). The story of the pris-
oner who later changed into a sparrow hawk and took revenge on his
malefactor is also found among the Tembe.
Some Parintintin motifs are entirely lacking in the folklore of other
Tupi tribes. Thus, the exchange of excrements by which the ant-eater
deceives the jaguar, belongs to Caingang and Baca'iri folklore. The tale
of the hero, who is made invulnerable and, changed into a fish, escapes
with the arrows shot at him, occurs among the Sherente, Camacan, and
Mashacali. The story of the fish which are caught by the hero and changed
into people, and the theme of the mosquitoes originating from the stomach
of a mutum {Crax sp.) are motifs of the Tucuna folklore.
INDIANS OF THE ANARI RIVER REGION
TERRITORY AND HISTORY
In 1914 or 1915, a band of unknown Indians appeared on the upper
Anari River, a left tributary of the lower Machado River, at lat. 9° 40' S.,
on lands previously inhabited by the then almost extinct Jaru. The band
had come from the left branch of the Branco River, a tributary of the
Jamary, where it had lived peaceably until friction developed with rubber
collectors. In reprisal for an attack, the Indians' village and farms were
destroyed, and the group fled to the Preto River region, but, failing to get
along with the rubber gatherers there, it moved on to the headwaters of
the Agua Azul and Limaozinho Rivers, tributaries of the Madeirinha, and
to the Carmelo and Jandahyra River regions. Here they founded three
villages. In 1916, they were established on both banks of the upper
Machadinho River. Rubber gatherers of the Preto River drove them out
of the Carmelo region, but in turn were attacked. Attempts to pacify
these Indians began in 1916 but all failed (Horta Barboza, 1916, pp. 9 f.,
26, 32), and, to the present date, 1942, the tribe has maintained its hostile
attitude.
The cultural data below indicate that the Indians of the upper Anari
River constitute another group of Cawahib. The name Bocas Pretas,
"black mouths," given them by Neo-Brazilians suggests that they have
black tattoo marks around the mouth, like the Parintintin of the Madeira
River.
Vol. 3] THE CAWAHIB, PARINTINTIN— NIMUENDAJU 295
CULTURE
In 1916-17, Captain Horta Barboza gathered a few ethnographic data.
These Indians grew maize, manioc, arrow-root, and cotton, but no bananas.
One village consisted of nine huts and two large open sheds. There were
baskets containing maize, and utensils for preparing meal. The Indians
would not accept tobacco, but picked up other gifts that were put out for
them. They had pots, a tore-type clarinet, 32 to 40 inches (80 to 100 cm.)
long, and hammocks made of wild fibers with small cross twines. The
tribe attacked with arrows, giving war cries, and they strew caltrops on
the paths. Six words were collected from a captive girl.
THE "PARINTINTIN" BETWEEN THE UPPER TAPAJOZ AND
SAO MANOEL RIVERS
In the triangle between the upper Tapajoz and Sao Manoel Rivers,
below lat. 10° S., there seems to be a tribe called Tapanyuna which has
been hostile until very recent times. Coudreau and the Franciscans of
the Cururu Mission refer to them as "Parintintin." Information given
H. Coudreau in 1895 by the Mundurucii, who were then at war with this
tribe, showed that it lived 2 or 3 days' travel above the Seven Falls of the
Sao Manoel River. Father Hugo Mense (personal correspondence)
describes them as tall, slender, handsome, long-haired Indians who are
cannibals but good pilots. The Mission's published report, "Lose Blatter
vom Cururu" (n. d.), contains 21 words which Mense obtained from a
captive. The language is very similar to that of Cawahih. Until the 1920's,
the tribe still made attacks in the region of the Sao Tome River and other
right tributaries of the upper Tapajoz. Today it is no longer mentioned.
Another mysterious tribe of the same region is the Taipe-shishi (a
Mimdnrucu name meaning "large number"), called Taipo-chichi by Father
Hugo Mense, Rdipe-chichi or A'ipo-sissi by H. Coudreau (1897 a),
Taypeheh-shishi by Father Albert Kruse, and Takai-mbucwu by the
Apiacd (according to Kruse, Takoi-mbuku, "long penis"). A missionary
report found in the Arquivos da Inspectoria do Servigo de Protecgao aos
Indios in Belem links the tribe to the Tapanyuna, probably using this name
in the modern sense, but Kruse identifies it as Parintintin. The name can
only refer to the exceedingly long penis sheath (16 in., or 40 cm.) worn
by the Parintintin, or at least, by those of the Madeira River. The Apiacd
informed Koch-Griinberg (1902) that this tribe wore their hair long, like
Mense's "Parintintin," a feature which distinguishes them from the
Madeira Parintintin and relates them to the Cayahi. The Taipe-shishi are
probably the Parintintin who live in the region between the upper Tapajoz
and Sao Manoel Rivers, and both names are synonyms designating a group
of the Cazvahib tribe.
296 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
INDIANS OF THE SANGUE RIVER REGION
Information which Father Guimaraes (1865) received from the Apiaca
in 1819 put the "Cauahipe" on the Paramutanga (Sangue) River, a tribu-
tary of the Juruena. Melgago ( 1884) says they were between the Juruena
and the Arinos Rivers, and an Apiaca told Castelnau in 1844 that the
"Cahuahiva" had been driven inland from the Juruena River by the
Apiaca.
In 1915, an expedition of the Commission of Stragetic Telegraph Lines
from Mato Grosso to the Amazon, led by Lieutenant F. P. Vasconcellos,
was attacked by Indians on the lower Sangue River. These Indians were
strong and well built. They used bark canoes, grew manioc and bananas,
and had hammocks. The men wore fiber aprons, but the only woman seen
was nude. Both sexes wore necklaces and bracelets, and had their faces
painted white and three white and black lines painted on the wrists. Their
arrows had an arched feathering (Rondon, 1916, pp. 259-270).
Vasconcellos (in Rondon, 1916) classified this tribe as Namhicuara,
but Rondon correctly related it to the "Parnauat" (Tupi of the Machado
River) , for it is probably another oflshoot of the Cawahib.
INDIANS OF THE BARARATY RIVER REGION
In Castelnau's list of tribes (1850-59, 3 : 104) compiled from early 19th-
century data, he says that the Parintintin lived from Todos os Santos Falls,
lat. 8° S., to a little above the mouth of the Sao Manoel River. In 1895,
the Mundurucu who lived in the region of the Bararaty River (a left tribu-
tary of the upper Tapajoz, about 6 miles above the Sao Manoel River)
stated that about 8 days' travel from the mouth and above some falls, lived
the Pari-uaia-Bararaty tribe (Coudreau, H., 1897 a). About 1920 these
Indians assaulted rubber collectors of this same region, but today they are
no longer mentioned.
This may have been another Cawahib group which remained more or
less in its original location.
THE "PARINTINTIN" BETWEEN THE JAMAXIM AND
CREPORY RIVERS
Friar Pelino de Castovalva, missionary to the Mundurucu in Bacabal,
in a report prepared in 1876, refers to the appearance of a band of
"Parintintin" in the vicinity of the mission (right bank of the Tapajoz,
lat. 6° 25' S.). The Indians attacked a rubber gatherer at the mouth of
the Jamaxim River, and killed a woman, whose head they carried away.
The mission Mundurucu pursued them and captured several, but they con-
tinued their bloody attacks, especially in the Jamaxim River region, until
1883.
Vol. 3] THE CAWAHIB, PARINTINTIN— NIMUENDAJD 297
H. Coudreau alone has ethnographic data on this group, and he ob-
tained them from a third party in 1895. Every year during the summer
the tribe peaceably passed through the rubber forests on the Crepory
and Caderiri Rivers, withdrawing in the winter to the interior of the
forests between the Xingu and Tapajoz Rivers. The Indians wore their
hair long, went completely nude, and had only a little tattooing on their
faces. Their language was so similar to that of the Munduructi that
they could make themselves understood without the use of the Lingua
Geral.
If, instead of tattooing, this tribe painted, the description given Cou-
dreau fits only the Curuaya (pp. 221-222), which, from time immemorial,
has lived to the east of the Curua River, a left tributary of the Iriri
River. Curuaya tradition recounts long excursions made in remote times
to the west, where they fought with the Karuziat (Mundurucu). It
seems reasonable, therefore, to suppose that the so-called "Parintintin"
of the right tributaries of the middle Tapajoz were really wandering
groups of the Curuaya. These " Parintintin" ceased their assaults at
exactly the time that the Curuaya entered into permanent and peaceful
contact with the Neo-Brazilians of the Iriri River. Moreover, neither
the Curuaya nor the missionaries to the Mundurucu mention any other
tribe in that territory, and Dr. Emilia Snethlage, going overland in 1909
from the Curua to the Jamaxim River and descending the latter, found
no definite signs of the presence of Indians.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
(CAYABf, TaPANYUNA, AND APIAcA AND CAWAHfB^ ParINTINTIN,
AND THEIR NEIGHBORS)
Ayres Cazal 1807 (1707) ; Barboza Rodrigues, 1875 a; Castelnau, 1850^59, vol. 3;
Castro and Franga, 1868; Chandless, 1862; Costa Pinheiro, 1915; Coudreau, H.,
1897 a; Dengler, 1928; Dyott, 1929; Farabee, 1917 a; Florence, 1941 (?) ; Fonseca,
1880^1; Garcia de Freitas, 1926; Grubb, 1927; Guimaraes, 1865; Hoehne (see Costa
Pinheiro, 1915) ; Horta Barboza, 1916; Katzer, 1901; Koch-Griinberg, 1902; Kricke-
berg, 1922; Langsdorff (see Florence, 1941 (?)) ; Lose Blatter . . . {see Missionarios
Franciscanos, n. d.) ; Martins, 1867; Melgago, 1884; Meyer, 1898; Missionarios Fran-
ciscanos, n. d. ; Nimuendaju, 1924; Nunes Pereira, 1940; Oliveira Miranda, 1890;
Peixoto de Azevedo, 1885; Rivet, 1924; Rond6n, 1916; Rossi, 1863; Sao Jose, 1847;
Schmidt, M., 1903, 1905, 1929 a ; Schmidt, W., 1913 ; Servigo de Protecgao aos Indies,
1942; Souza, A., 1916; Steinen, 1886, 1940; Telles Pires (see Oliveira Miranda,
1890) ; Tenan, n. d. ; Tocantins, 1877; Vasconcellos (see Rondon, 1916).
THE TUPI-CAWAHIB
By Claude Levi- Strauss
TRIBAL DIVISIONS AND HISTORY
The Tupi-Cawahib are not mentioned in the literature prior to 1913-14,
when they were discovered by General Candido Mariano da Silva Rondon,
who headed the Brazilian Military Commission. Little information about
them is contained in the reports of the Commission (Missao Rondon,
1916; Rondon, 1916).
The Tupi-Cawahib declined rapidly in population within a few years.
The 300 individuals who comprised the Takwatip clan in 1915 were re-
duced in 10 years to only 59 persons — 25 men, 22 women, and 12 children.
In 1938, there were only 5 men, a woman, and a small girl. Thirty
years ago, the entire Tupi group probably included from 2,000 to 3,000
persons; now only 100 or 150 of them are alive. Epidemics of grippe,
during 1918-20, are largely responsible for the decline in population.
Several cases of paralysis of the legs, observed in 1938 (Levi-Strauss,
n.d. a), suggest that poliomyelitis may have reached this remote region.
According to the linguistic and historical evidence presented by Nim-
uendaju (1924, 1925), the Tupi-Cawahib and Parintintin are the rem-
nants of an ancient Tupi tribe, the Cabahiba. Since the 18th century,
it has often been stated that the Cabahiba had once lived in the upper
Tapajoz Basin. The language of the Tupi-Cawahib closely resembles
that of the Parintintin, and both are related to the language of the Apiaca
of the Tapajoz River. After the destruction of the Cabahiba by the
Mundurucu, the Tupi-Cawahib settled on the Rio Branco, a left tributary
of the Roosevelt River (lat. 10'-12° S., long. 61 "-62° W.) From the
Rio Branco they were driven to their present territory on both sides
of the Machado (or upper Gi-Parana) River, from the Riosinho River
in the southeast to the Muqui and the Leitao River in the north and the
northwest. These three waterways are small tributaries of the Machado
River. The native groups mentioned by both Rondon and Nimuendaju
(1924, 1925) are clans with special geographical localization. Ac-
cording to Nimuendaju's informant, the Wirafed and Paranawdt
(Paranauad) were settled on a tributary of the right bank of the
653333—47—22 ^qq
300 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
Riosinho River. The Takwatib Eriwahun (Nimuendaju), or Taktvatip
(Levi-Strauss), who had once Hved on the Tamuripa River, a right
tributary of the Machado River, halfway between the Riosinho and
the Muqui Rivers, were brought by General Rondon to the Rio
Machado, where they lived until 1925, when the last six members of
the group joined the Telegraphic Post of Pimenta Bueno. The Ipotezvdt,
mentioned by Rondon, are no longer an autonomous unit. According
to information recorded in 1938, they were then living on the upper
Cacoal between the Riosinho and Tamuripa Rivers. Living downstream
were the Tucmnanjct. The Paranazvdt, mentioned by Rondon and Nim-
uendaju, lived on the Rio Muqui in 1938. They numbered about 100
individuals and had refused to have any contact with White people.
When the remnants of the previously unknown Mialat were discovered
in 1938 on the upper Leitao River, there were only 16 members of the
group (Levi-Strauss, n.d. a). The now extinct Jabotifet were formerly
settled between the upper Cacoal and Riosinho Rivers.
CULTURE
SUBSISTENCE
Farming. — The Tupi-Cawahib cultivate gardens in large clearings
near their villages and hunt game in the dense forest. They raise : both
bitter and sweet manioc; five kinds of maize — a white one with large
kernels, a dark red variety, a kind with white, black, and red kernels,
one with orange and black kernels, and a red "chine"; small, broad-
beans; peanuts; hot peppers; bananas; papayas; cotton; and calabashes.
Digging slicks and stone axes were formerly used for preparing and
tilling the fields.
Wild foods. — The Tupi-Cawahib gather several wild foods. To facili-
tate the collection of Brazil nuts, which are abundant in the region, they
clear the forest around each tree. They collect two kinds of cacao beans
which are eaten raw and several kinds of berries. To harvest the small
pyramidal seeds of an unidentified tall forest grass (awatsipororoke),
the natives tie several of the stems together before the ears are ripe,
so that the seeds will fall together in small heaps.
The tapir, peccary, forest deer, great anteater, and numerous kinds
of monkeys (pi. 25, left) and birds are hunted. Wild bees are killed
in the hive by closing the entrance with a pad of leaves of an unidentified
poisonous tree, and the honey is collected in coarse containers of bark
or leaves. Fish are shot with arrows or drugged with a saponine-rich
vine that is used in dams constructed of branches and mud in shallow
places in rivers. When the Tupi-Cawahib were first observed by the
Whites, they kept chickens in conical sheds made of sticks set in the
ground in a circle and tied together at the top. There was no dog in
the Mialat village discovered in 1938.
Vol. 3] THE TUPI-CAWAHIB— LEVI STRAUSS 301
Food preparation. — Game is singed and smoked in the skin, either
intact or in pieces. Babracots are about 5 feet (1.5 m.) high and are
constructed on four posts. Game is smoked for 24 hours; during the
night, an attendant takes care of the fire. The babracot for drying
beans is made of several branches placed on transverse sticks, which
are supported on the prongs of a three-forked branch.
Maize chicha (ka-ui) (pi. 24, left) is made by drying the kernels and
grinding them in a mortar with a few Brazil nuts or peanuts for seasoning.
The coarse flour is mixed with water in large bowls, and small children
spit saliva in the gruel. After the chicha ferments a few hours, it is
put on the fire, and is kept just below the boiling point for 2 or 3 hours.
Fresh gruel is constantly added to compensate for the evaporation. The
beverage is drunk as soon as it is cold or during the next 2 or 3 days.
Manioc tubers are grated and roasted in large plates. Popcorn is
made of maize and of the wild seed, awatsipororoke. Pama berry seeds
are eaten roasted. In contrast to the neighboring Nambicuara, the Tupi-
Catvahib are fond of highly seasoned foods. They cook hot peppers
and broadbeans in a stew. A kind of salt is prepared by burning acuri
palm leaves, sifting the ashes, and washing them with water. Both the
water, which is dark brown and bitter, and the ashes, which form a gray
astringent powder, are used as condiments.
HOUSES
When Rondon discovered the Tupi-Cawahib, their square huts had no
walls; the gable roof of palms was supported on posts set in the
ground. Hammocks were svv^ung from the posts. In 1915 the Takwatip
village comprised about 20 houses, each from 12 to 18 feet (3.5 to 5.5 m.)
long, arranged in a circle about 60 feet (18 m.) in diameter. Two large
houses in the center of the circle, each from 36 to 42 feet (11 to 12.5 m.)
long, were occupied by the chief, Abaitara, and his wives, children, and
court. Cages for harpy eagles and huts for fowls were in the open space
of the circular plaza. There were no fortifications surrounding the village.
Quite different was the Mialat village discovered in 1938. Of the four
square houses, each about 30 feet (9 m.) long, situated in a row, two were
used for living quarters and two for food storage. The roof frame was
supported by posts, irregularly spaced and set back under the projecting
roof, so that the house resembled a square mushroom. The storage
quarters had no walls. Each of the other two houses was surrounded by
a continuous palisade about 6 feet (2 m.) high, which gave the appearance
of a wall but actually did not support the roof, as there was an opening a
few inches wide between the lower edge of the roof frame and the top
of the palisade. The palisade, which had loopholes (pi. 25, right) for
shooting arrows, was made of longitudinal sections of palm trunks, fast-
ened edge to edge, the convex surface turned outward. The exterior was
302 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
decorated with jaguars, dogs, harpy eagles, snakes, frogs, children, and
the moon painted in urucii paste.
Platforms were built along the paths leading to the villages as lookouts
from which the moves of hostile groups could be observed (Rondon,
1916).
Tree trunks were used to bridge small waterways.
DRESS AND ORNAMENTS
According to Rondon (1916), men wore a garment of woven cotton
resembling drawers. In 1938, Tupi-Cawahib men were naked, except for
a small conical penis sheath made of the two halves of a leaf plaited and
sewed. Women wore a short, cylindrical skirt of woven cotton string,
which reached half-way to the knees (pi. 26). Modern Tupi-Cawahib
women tattoo their faces with a sharpened deer bone and genipa, applying
a geometrical design on the chin and two large symetrical curved stripes
on the cheeks, running from the chin to the ears. Men used to paint them-
selves with genipa or urucu dye when monkey hunting (Rondon, 1916).
Both sexes wear bracelets, earrings, necklaces, and rings made of mollusk
shells, nutshells, wild seeds, game teeth, and deer bones cut in rectangular
plates (pi. 26) . For ceremonies, men wear a cap without a top made of
a large band of woven cotton, over which feathers are stuck. The chief
wears a heavy tuft of feathers hanging down his back. Both sexes pluck
their pubic hair and eyebrows, using the thumb nail and a half shell.
"Eyebrows wearer" is the derogatory equivalent of "civilized." Woven
cotton bands are worn around the ankles, the arm, and the wrists.
TRANSPORTATION
The Tupi-Cawahib made canoes of the bark of large trees (Rondon,
1916), A baby straddles its mother's hip, supported by a cotton sling
(pi. 26, right).
MANUFACTURES
Spinning. — Spinning is done by women. A Tupi-Cawahib spindle con-
sists of a small stick, with a round wild seed for the whorl. It is very
light and is used more for winding thread in balls than for spinning.
Textile arts. — Cotton armlets and anklets are woven by women on
primitive vertical looms. Women's skirts are woven and small hammocks
are netted with cotton string, and carrying sacks are woven with tucum
string.
Basketry. — The Tupi-Cawahib weave flat sieves and baskets of bamboo
strips and palm leaves, and fire fans of palm leaves, often decorating the
fans with feathers. An ingenious rucksack for carrying large objects or
animals is made by knotting two palm leaves together.
Vol. 3] THE TUPI-CAWAHIB— LEVI STRAUSS 303
Pottery. — The earthenware seen in 1938 consisted of hemispherical
bowls, large ones for preparing chicha and small ones for individual meals,
and large, circular plates for roasting flour. None were decorated. In-
formants, however, speak of a purple dye obtained from a wild leaf which
was used in former times for painting geometric designs.
Weapons. — Tupi-Cawahib bows are about 5 feet 8 inches (1.7 m.)
long and are made of a black palm wood. The section is circular and the
ends are carved to form a knob and shoulders for fastening the string.
The grip is wrapped with cotton. Arrows are of three types : those tipped
with a large bamboo splinter, for hunting mammals; those with a blunt
point, for bird hunting ; and arrows which have short feathers and four to
seven bamboo points arranged as a crown around a small ball of string, for
fishing. Feathering is flush and tied (Arara type), flush and sewed (Xingu
type), or arched (eastern Brazil type) . Arrow poison is unknown. When
shot, the arrow is grasped between the first and middle fingers, which also
draw the string, or else it is held between the thumb and finger, and the
string drawn with the other three fingers.
To defend the paths leading to their villages, the Tupi-Cawahib set
pointed rods or stakes obliquely into the ground, either singly or fencelike.
The stakes are from 1 foot (30 cm.) (Levi- Strauss, n.d. a) to 4 feet
(1.2 m.) (Rondon, 1916) in height, so as to impale the foot or the body,
and are hidden under foliage taken from the surrounding forest.
Other implements. — Boxes for holding feathers are made of hollowed
sections of acuri palm trunks ; a longitudinal segment serves as a cover. A
manioc grater consists of a wooden board with embedded palm thorns.
Spoons and containers are made of calabashes. Ordinary combs and small-
tooth combs are of the composite type. Drills and knives are made of iron
pieces fastened onto sticks with wax and wrapper cotton.
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION
The Tupi-Cawahib are divided into several patrilineal sibs, each localized
in one or more villages occupying a defined territory. There is a strong
tendency toward village exogamy, which is regarded less as a binding rule
than as a means of insuring good relations between neighboring sibs.
Endogamic marriages are possible, although infrequent. Residence seems
to be patrilocal, although contrary practices have been recorded. Conse-
quently, the majority of individuals in any village belong to one eponymic
sib, but are nevertheless associated with a few people belonging to different
allied sibs. Besides the four group names mentioned by Rondon (1916)
and Nimuendajii (1924), no less than 15 new sib names were recorded
in 1938 (Levi-Strauss, n.d. a). As this list is certainly incomplete,
the ancient sib organization must have been complex. In addition to sib
divisions, each village was divided into two age classes, "the youths" and
304 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.B. Bull. 143
"the elders." The function of these age classes seems to have been mostly
ceremonial.
Chieftaincy is hereditary, passing from the father to son. In former
times, the chief was attended by a hierarchy of officials. He possessed
judicial power and imposed the death sentence, the convicted person being
bound and thrown into the river from a canoe. When the Rondon Com-
mission first met the Takwatip chief, Abaitara, he was apparently extend-
ing his domination over a large number of sibs and trying, by means of
successful wars, to establish his hegemony over others.
WARFARE
Rondon mentions the decapitation of enemies killed in warfare, but does
not state that head trophies were prepared.
LIFE CYCLE
Childbirth. — A couvade is observed, during which both parents eat
only gruel and small animals. Nuts of all kinds are forbidden them.
Marriage. — The Tupi-Cawahib practice marriage between cross-cousins
and between a maternal uncle and his niece. In the latter case, an adult
man may betroth a baby girl, who remains under his care and to whom he
gives presents until they marry. Although marriage is generally monoga-
mous, a chief may have several wives, usually sisters, or a woman and
her daughter. To compensate for the shortage of women thus created, the
chief lends his wives to bachelors and to visitors, and fraternal polyandry,
associated with the levirate, is practiced within the group. In a polygynous
family, one wife has authority over the others, regardless of the differences
of age or of previous family relationship.
The existence of homosexuality is not openly acknowledged, but a word
meaning "passive pederast" is commonly used as an insult.
Death. — The deceased at the time of Rondon's visit was buried inside
his hut under his hammock, which, with his weapons, ornaments, and
utensils, was left undisturbed. Mourners, i. e., relatives, cut their hair
(Rondon, 1916).
ESTHETIC AND RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Art. — Painting on house walls has already been mentioned.
Narcotics. — Strangely enough, the Tupi-Cawahib do not cultivate
or use tobacco. (For chicha, see p. 301.)
Games. — Children play with crude toys made of plaited or twisted
straw. In a disk game, "the youths" are matched against "the elders";
each age group alternately shoots its arrows at a rolling wooden disk
thrown across the plaza by a pitcher. In another archery contest, they
Vol. 3] THE TUPI-CAWAHIB— LEVI STRAUSS 305
shoot arrows at a dummy representing a man or an animal. There is a
belief that to shoot at a wooden dummy may bring death ; to avoid the
risk, the dummy is made of straw.
Dance and music. — Festivals were given by the chief, who assumed
the title, "Owner of the Feast." Festivals were preceded by hunting expe-
ditions to obtain small animals, such as rats and marmosets, which were
smoked and strung together to be worn as necklaces. During the feast,
men playfully carried a flute player on their shoulders.
In 1938, the Mialat chief entertained his people several times with a
musical show in which songs alternated with dialogue. He himself played
the numerous roles of the comedy, humorously enacting the adventures
of several animals and inanimate objects which were mystified by the
japim bird. Each character was easily recognized by a musical leitmotif
and a special register of the voice.
Musical instruments. — The main musical instruments were pottery
trumpets (Rondon, 1916), panpipes with 13 pipes, short flageolets with
4 holes, whistles, and gourd rattles. A clarinet without stops was made
of a piece of bamboo about 4 feet (1.2 m.) long; a small piece of bamboo
in which a vibrating strip was cut formed the reed.
MAGIC AND RELIGION
We have no indication of the magical and religious beliefs of the Tupi-
Cawahib. The chief is certainly endowed with shamanistic powers : he
treats patients and improvises songs and dances in order to tell and enact
his dreams, which are considered to have a premonitory significance. At
the end of his musical show, he may become delirious and try to kill anyone
in sight. ■ ■ ;■ , :(
Although nearly all the sibs have animal or vegetable names, totemism
does not seem to exist, for the eponymic plants or animals are freely eaten.
Even today, the Tupi-Cawahib capture great harpy eagles, rear them
carefully in large square cages, and feed them game, such as birds and
monkeys. It is likely that this custom has a magical or religious back-
ground, though nothing positive is known in this respect.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Levi-Strauss, n. d. a; Missao Rondon, 1916; Nimuendaju, 1924, 1925; Rondon, 1916.
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THE CAYABI, TAPANYUNA, AND APIACA
By Curt Nimuendaju
THE CAYABI
INTRODUCTION
These Indians call themselves Parud, but since their contacts with
Europeans they also use the name Cayabi.
Language. — There is practically no difference between the Tupi dialect
spoken by the Cayabi and that of the Camayurd. Rivet (1924, p. 659)
and Grubb (1927, p. 118) mistakenly place them in the Cariban family,
probably because of some Bacdiri words which they used when they
were encountered by A. Pyrineus de Souza's expedition.
Tribal divisions and history. — Among the Indians met by Antonio
Peixoto during his expedition to the Paranatinga River were perhaps
Cayabi. The Mundurucu who accompanied the expedition called them
Parabitata (parir, "non-Mundurucu Indians," bi; "lip," tata?). However,
unlike the Cayabi, these Indians used rafts made of embauva trunks.
The name Cayabi appears for the first time in Castelnau's report (1850-59, 2:306)
on the Tapajoz region (map 1, No. 1; map 4). In 1848, the Cayabi figure in a list
of tribes as indomitable Indians living near the Salto de Paranatinga. In 1884,
Von den Steinen (1886) found among the Paranatinga Bacairi two Cayabi women
who had been captured during their childhood by a party avenging a murder and
the abduction of a child. Hostilities between the Cayabi and the Whites began with
the advance of the rubber collectors into the region of the Paranatinga River. It is
not unlikely that in 1899 some Cayabi lived, as Herrmann Meyer heard from the
Aueto of the Culisseu River, on the Steinen River, the westernmost tributary of the
Xingu River. In 1900, they were visited on the Paranatinga River by a Salesian
missionary, Father Balzola. The vestiges which Max Schmidt found in 1901 on
the headwaters of the Ronuro and Batovy Rivers and identified as Cayabi were
more likely Cayapo, who were later reported in that region by Dyott in 1928 and
Petrullo in 1931. In 1901, a skirmish took place between the Bacairi and Cayabi,
and an expedition sent by Orlando Bruno and Co. found Cayabi near the mouth of
the Rio Verde, on the Paranatinga River. In 1910, the Cayabi killed their long-time
director, M. F. Valois Velho, and the same year a punitive expedition killed many
of them and captured children.
In May 1915, an expedition led by Lt. Pyrineus de Souza down the Paranatinga-
Sao Manoel River, between lat. 12° 40' and 11° 30' S., had numerous encounters
307
308 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
with Cayabi. The Indians remained friendly so long as the expedition had tools to
offer. As Pyrineus de Souza encountered groups of 100 Indians in some places
and 200 in others, the total number of the tribe can be estimated at about 1,000.
In 1927, Max Schmidt had brief contacts with six Cayabi Indians who had come
to get gifts at the Servigo de Protecgao aos Indios post located above the mouth of
the Verde River, on the Paranatinga River.
After 1936, the Cayabi, at first under the name of Makiri, began to appear peace-
ably at the mouth of the Sao Alanoel-Paranatinga River. The missionary, Father
Albert Kruse, took a short vocabulary from those who stopped at the Mundurucu
mission of Cururti. In 1941, another post of tlie Servigo de Protecgao aos Indios
was founded on the right bank of the Sao Manoel River, at about lat. 8° 55' S.
According to the reports of the Arquivos da Inspectoria de Indios of Para, 90
Indians appeared at the post in 1941, and 42 in 1942 and settled down somewhat
above the post. Meanwhile, the mortality among these newcomers was very great.
CULTURE
SXJBSISTENCE ACTIVITIES
A. Pyrineus de Souza (1916) saw large cultivated fields and received
from the Indians green maize with long and slender ears, cara, batata
rouxa (sweet potatoes), and crushed peanuts, which the Indians ate with
tapioca. The Indians made balls of meal wrapped in sororoca leaves.
From manioc they prepare a highly fermented and very sour drink.
In the forest, the Indians obtain many Brazil nuts which are especially
important to them. They also eat barbecued and almost rotten deer meat
and ducks broiled with entrails and feathers.
HOUSE AND VILLAGES
The huts of the upper region of Cayabi territory are generally located
in the fields, away from the rivers. On the banks are only small fishing
shanties. Farther down the river, however, Pyrineus de Souza found
dwelHngs along the river banks.
In the houses were nets, gourds, small baskets, and shells, the last used
as knives and carried hanging from the neck.
DRESS AND ORNAMENTS
Both sexes go about naked. From early childhood, males tie the fore-
skin with a thick cotton string, which they always wear in public and
remove only to urinate.
Both sexes have the earlobes pierced for the insertion of pieces of
wood, the tips of deer horns, or bamboo tubes, 3 to 4 inches long (7.5
to 10 cm.) decorated with tufts of feathers. On the wrists and below
the knees, men wear woven cotton bands. Women wear these bands
only below the knees, but they also use a belt consisting of several tight
strings of threaded beads made of palm nuts.
Vol. 3] CAYABI, TAPANYUNA, AND APIACA— NIMUENDAJU 309
For festive occasions men wear luxurious feather caps and headdresses.
The caps are made of feathers and feather tufts mounted on a cotton net.
Some men wear headbands of jaguar, monkey, or coati skin.
Some women pull out their eyebrows, eyelashes, and pubic hair. Men
wear their hair long, tied at the neck. Women sometimes cut theirs
at the level of the ears and comb it over the forehead. Hair is cut with
a shell.
The Cayabi paint themselves and dye their hair with urucii. Two wide
parallel strips tattooed with genipa at the mouth level for men, and a
single stripe on the cheek with vertical lines around the mouth for women,
is perhaps a tribal characteristic, according to L. Tenan (n.d.).
TRANSPORTATION
The canoes are made of cashew tree bark (cajui, Anacardium micro-
carpum). The prow and stern are the same, and both are tied with a
tough vine. The Indians paddle standing up.
The Pyrineus de Souza expedition was attacked by the Cayabi when it
had no more gifts. Before starting hostilities, an important member of
the tribe sang and harangued the expedition. Warriors did not wear any
special ornaments. They attacked by showering the enemy with arrows
amidst loud shouting.
A Cayabi arrow described by Max Schmidt is 5 feet 3 inches (1.6 m.)
long with a shaft made of camayuva ( Gadua sp. ) , radial sewed feathering,
and a bone point set so as to form a barb. The bow is flat on the cord
side and convex on the outside. These Indians also fought with large thick
clubs. According to the Baca'iri, Cayabi clubs are made of bacayuva
wood. They are carefully carved, flat, about 5 feet (1.5 m.) long, and
have a string loop.
The Cabayi are said to have held a monopoly on stone axes, which
caused conflict with the Bacdiri when the latter descended the Paranatinga
River. The hostility between the two tribes is old, but was preceded by
a period of peace. The Cayabi are also accredited with cannibalism.
According to L. Tenan (n.d.), they decapitated a slain enemy and cooked
the head, eating the meat and making a trophy and musical instruments of
the skull. In their attacks against civilized people, they sometimes took
children captives.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
See Cawahib, Parintintin, and Their Neighbors, bibliography, page 297.
310 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
TAPANYUNA
By 1747, at the time of the Joao de Souza's expedition, the Arino lived
on the right bank of the Arinos River and on the upper Tapajoz River,
from the territory of the Macuari (i.e., Bacdiri) at about lat. 11°50' S.,
to that of the Uarupd on the Haravan River (Sao Joao da Barra at lat.
8° 55' S.). The name Arino then disappears and its place is taken by
Tapanyuna (map 1, No. 1; map 4).
Tapanyuna is not an Apiacd word, but a Lingua Geral term which means
"negro." Martins consequently thought that these people were fugitive
slaves, but actually the name refers to the black paint they habitually
wore.
From the documents which Castelnau compiled (1850-59) on the
Arinos River in the first half of the 19th century, the Tapanyuna lived on
the right side of the Arinos River from Bacuri {Bacdiri) territory to the
Juruena River and on the left side of the Arinos from the Bacuri to the
Apiacd (lat. 11° S.). No other source mentions the Tapanyuna on the
left side of the Arinos River.
In 1812, the Apiacd warned Castro and Franga (1868) of a tribe which
lived upstream on the right bank and used clubs. Three days later, they
encountered three canoes which differed from those of the Apiaca, and
they saw some fishing baskets. More details on the Tapanyuna were
gathered by Guimaraes (1865) from the Apiacd in 1819.
According to the Apiacd, there were three tribes on the Peixe River:
First, the Tapanhona, on the river bank above the falls ; next, the Tapan-
honaukum (perhaps it should be Tapii-un-uhu, "large Tapanyuna") in-
land from the river bank; and third, the Timaoana {Cayabi, Timaudn,
Tapanyuna) , the last of the tribes of the Peixe River. The first were tall,
heavy-set, and warlike. They usually protected their dwellings with thorns
or sharp stakes and with pitfalls all around. They used bows and arrows,
and wore macaw and royal sparrow hawk feathers in their pierced ears.
The Tapanhonauhum used bows and arrows and clubs, and were also war-
like. They painted black circles on their faces, and adorned their
pierced ears with multicolored feathers. The Timaoana, of average height,
were cannibals, and painted their faces from forehead to neck. They used
the same weapons as the preceding tribes. The women wore gold ear
ornaments and beads. After 1820, only the Tapanyuna are mentioned.
Metraux was correct in regarding the Tapanhonauhum and Timaoana as
mere local subdivisions of the Tapanyuna.
In 1820, Francisco Lopes da Sa (see Apiacd, p. 312) reached a Tapan-
yuna village where he found only women and children. On his return he
tried to get to the headwaters of the Peixe River, but was stopped by
500 (?) Tapanyuna warriors.
According to the tribal list of the Arquivos da Directoria de Indios of
Cuyaba, the Tapanyuna numbered 800 people in 1848 and were hostile to
Vol. 3] CAYABI, TAPANYUNA, AND APIACA— NIMUENDAJU 311
the Apiacd and to the Whites, whose canoes they attacked. In 1895 H.
Coudreau (1897 a) obtained meager information about a tribe which lived
on the Tapanhuna River (Peixe River) and which spoke the same lan-
guage as the Apiacd. They were said to lure travelers on the Arinos and
upper Tapajoz River to their settlements and then to riddle them with
arrows.
Another list of tribes, compiled by Castelnau (1850-59), mentions
only the Tapaiunagu (Tapanhonauhum) , a noncivilized, agricultural
tribe living near the Namhicuara, and the Tamauanga (Thnaudn) who,
like the former, were a hostile but industrious tribe. In 1892, the
Tapanyuna (or perhaps the Parintintin) looted and fired the Apiacd
village in the vicinity of the Sao Florencio Falls. In 1893 or 1894,
a small group of Tapanyuna (or of the Parintintin ?) was massacred by
the Mundurucu on the Furna Islands where they were gathering Brazil
nuts. In 1895, they fatally wounded the first Mato Grosso state col-
lector, Garcia Junior, at the mouth of the Arinos River.
In 1915, Lt. Pyrineus de Souza was warned by the Cayahi in the Parana-
tinga region that downstream there lived some wild Indians who painted
their bodies and faces black and who might attack him with arrows and
devour him. At a tributary of the left bank (about lat. 11° 15' S.), he
found vestiges of the tribe : two small huts which differed from those built
by the Cayahi, being constructed of poles cut with iron tools and covered
with sororoca leaves. There were babracots for broiling meat and fish, and
many fishbones around. A path led into the interior.
After 1910, rubber workers along the tributaries on the right bank of
the upper Tapajoz were sometimes attacked by hostile Indians. Those at
Sao Tome they called Tapanyuna. It is probable, however, that these
were not the Tapanyuna from the Peixe River, but Indians who were
known formerly as Parintintin, In the MundurucH vocabulary prepared
in 1912, Hoehne (in Costa Pinheiro, 1915) uses the word Paridindin as a
synonym for Tapanhuna, proving the confusion in the naming of these
two tribes, a confusion completed by the increasing tendency to identify
the Tapayuna with the Namhicuara on the other bank of the Tapajoz
River.
The only known objects of this tribe are a stone ax reproduced by
Coudreau, H. (1897 a, p. 91) and a rectangular wooden shield figured by
Krickeberg ( 1922, 1 :276) . The latter is such a cultural anomaly that its
being attributed to the Tapanyuna is very doubtful.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
See Cawahib. Parintintin, and Their Neighbors, bibliography, page 297.
312 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
APIACA
INTRODUCTION
These Indians have always been called Apiaca. The Cayabi refer to
them as Tapii-tin, "the white foreigners."
History. — The Apiaca are mentioned for the first time in itineraries of
1791 and 1805 pubhshed by Castelnau (1850-59, 3: 93). However, it is
possible that they were one of the five tribes found on the Arinos River
by Joao de Souza in 1747. In 1812, they established peaceful relations
with the expeditions of Miguel Joao de Castro and Antonio Tome de
Franga. In 1818, Antonio Peixoto de Azevedo took seven Apiaca to
Cuyaba, and in the following year the Apiaca chief, Severino, and 14 others
visited that city. From them, Jose da Silva Guimaraes (1865) obtained
information for a memoir on their customs. Their tales about great
mineral riches caused Father Francisco Lopes de Sa to undertake an unsuc-
cessful expedition using Apiaca guides in quest of gold and diamonds.
In 1828, the tribe was visited by the Langsdorff expedition and the
artist, Florence (1941 ?), left a good description and excellent sketches of
these Indians.
Castelnau (1850-59, 2:313) met some Apiaca in Diamantino and
obtained a vocabulary.
Until 1848, the Apiaca (map 1; No. 1; map 4) inhabited the region
between the junction of the Arinos and Juruena Rivers, from the 11th
parallel northward. Their villages were located on the left bank of the
Arinos River and on the right bank of the Juruena River, but both banks
of the rivers were frequented somewhat beyond their junction. The
Juruena River settlements had never been visited and all the descriptions
refer only to the Apiaca on the Arinos River.
The Apiaca were very numerous. Records, probably from the beginning
of the 19th century, mention bands of 200 to 300 archers each year and a
total of 16,000 persons. In 1812, Castro and Franga (1868) found about
500 people in one settlement, 250 of whom were warriors. In 1819,
Guimaraes (1865) mentions a village with 1,500 inhabitants. The Arqui-
vos da Directoria de Indios of Cuyaba gives their number at 2,700 for
1848.
In 1862, Rossi (1863) mentioned Apiaca on the left bank of the Arinos
River, but Chandless (1862) located them above Salto Augusto. Their
number was then declining. Barboza Rodrigues (1875) found the Apiaca
in three villages a little above and below Salto Augusto. Under pressure
by the Neo-Brazilians, a large part of the tribe had migrated to the Sao
Manoel River, and became the Pari-hi-tete (a Miindurucu name meaning
"non-Mundurucu painted lip Indians"). Twenty years ago, this tribe
inhabited the upper course of the Apiaca River, a left tributary of the Sao
Manoel, but it has since disappeared. In 1895, Coudreau, H., (1897 a)
Vol. 3] OAYABI, TAPANYUNA, AND APIACA— NIMUENDAJU 313
found its remnants (100 individuals) living in five huts between Salto
Sao Simao and Sao Florencio. They were already dependent upon the
Neo-Brazilian rubber gatherers. The men and some of the women dressed
in civilized fashion, and there was evidence of some Negro mixture.
Katzer (1901) published notes on the tattooing and language of the
Apiacd found at Itaituba. In the same year, Max Schmidt collected a
vocabulary from an Apiacd in Rosario, Mato-Grosso, which was published
by Koch-Griinberg (1902) with a compilation of all the linguistic and
historical data known on these Indians.
With the establishment in 1902 of the Collectoria estadoal do Mato
Grosso, the Indians fell on evil times. A great many were killed in reprisal
for an attack they made against the collector's office. The situation changed
only when Jose Sotero Barreto took the survivors under his protection and
gathered them at the Collectoria. In 1912, there still lived 32 Apiacd
(Costa Pinheiro, 1915, p. 75). In 1916 they were visited by Farabee
(1917 a), who found them mixed with Negroes.
Today the Apiacd no longer exist as a tribe. Only a few individuals
live at the Collectoria at the mouth of the Sao Manoel River and in the
Franciscan missions on the Cururu River.
Language. — The Apiacd language differs very little from Camayurd,
a Tupi-Guarani dialect spoken on the lower Culisseu River, from Cayabi
of the Sao Manoel River, or from the dialect of the Cazvahih (Parintintin
of the Madeira River and Tupi of the Alto Machado). Apiacd is pure
Tupi and the difference between it and Tupinamha is somewhat greater
than between Tupinamha and Gnarani. Soon after their first contact with
the Neo-Brazilians, their language received several elements of the Lingua
Geral.
CULTURE
SUBSISTENCE ACTIVITIES
Farming. — The Apiacd cultivated extensive tracts of land and, accord-
ing to ancient travelers, their fields stretched beyond sight.
Planting was probably women's task and not a masculine activity, as
stated by Guimaraes. The Apiacd raised bitter and sweet manioc, maize,
cara (Dioscorca), yams, sweet potatoes, magorito, peanuts, beans, lima
beans, pumpkins, cotton, and, already in 1848, watermelons. Tobacco is
not mentioned and was apparently unknown.
Wild foods included the Brazil nuts.
Domestication. — Florence (1941 ?) mentions that in a single village
he found 80 tame macaws and a falcon in a thatched stick cage. Early
sources mention no domestic animals, not even dogs. In 1820, however,
Florence found dogs, pigs, chickens, and ducks. By 1848, the Apiacd sold
fowls to travelers.
314 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
Hunting and fishing. — According to the "Nova navegaqao" (Anony-
mous, 1856), the Apiacd did not eat any kind of fowl; of mammals they
only ate peccaries, tapirs, and capybaras.
They caught fish in baskets set at the bottom of weirs across the
mouths of streams.
Food preparation. — Maize was crushed in a cylindrical mortar with
a pestle 12 feet (3.6 m.) long. Roasted fish were crushed, bones and all,
to make a flour. The Apiacd kept this and manioc flour in woven bags.
HOUSES
Originally, the Apiacd lived exclusively on the river shores in settlements
which, with rare exceptions, consisted of a single house, large enough to
accommodate hundreds of people. These huts were rectangular with
rounded ends, and were covered with a thatched roof of ubim or sape
which rested on straight or arched rafters, and descended to within 1.50 m.
(about 5 ft.) of the ground. The walls were made of paxiuba palm or of
castanha bark. There was a main door of jatoba bark at each end, and
several other doors in the long side walls. The living quarters where the
Indians hung their hammocks extended on both sides of the hut, leaving
the intervening space entirely free. Above the hammocks were platforms
for storing maize and other foods. The house was surrounded by a large,
carefully weeded clearing.
Hammocks were made of cotton, either in a net technique or of coarse
fabric (Castro and Franga, 1868, p. 112).
DRESS AND ADORNMENT
Men tied to the foreskin a little sheath of pacova leaves with a ligature
that forced the penis inside and covered it entirely. Women were entirely
naked.
Some individuals of both sexes wore narrow woven cotton bands below
the knees and on the ankles. The use of tight garters four inches ( 10 cm. )
wide decorated with small feathers and of bands with long fringes on the
forearms was restricted to men. Both sexes wrapped thick cotton threads
around their ankles and wrists. Chiefs adorned their heads with white
tufts. To make diadems, feathers were sometimes interwoven in a cotton
fabric. On the forehead stood five long macaw tail feathers, with two
shorter hawk feathers on each side and yellow japu feathers beyond. Men
carried a kind of scepter made of six macaw tail feathers with their bases
covered with down.
Both sexes had their ears pierced for the insertion of peccary teeth,
small wooden pegs, or feathers. They seem to have inserted feathers
through the nasal septum. Men wore long necklaces strung with the
teeth of cutia and other small animals. Chiefs used a large, shiny, white
Vol. 3] CAYABI, TAPANYUNA, AND APIACA— NIMUBNDAJU 315
collar of shell and large belts of black beads and human teeth. Women's
necklaces were made of tucum nuts ground into shape on a stone and
perforated with a fish tooth, and interspersed with human teeth, which
were their husbands' war trophies. Some men wore belts of animal teeth ;
others, belts woven of cotton and dyed with urucii, with tassels at both
ends. These tassels were tied together and hung over the genitals.
Men cut their hair along the forehead and above the ears. Women
wrapped their hair with a cotton fillet so that it formed a horizontal tuft.
They did not pluck their eyebrows or eyelashes.
Men were tattooed by women who used tucum thorns. The pattern
consisted of three lines extending from each ear, one to a little below the
nose, one to a corner of the mouth, one to the chin. At the age of 14, the
tattooing was completed with a rectangle around the mouth, a symbol
indicating that the wearer could eat human flesh. The designs tattooed
on the body are said to have illustrated their war and hunting deeds.
According to Florence, these included parallel right angles on their chest
and abdomen, and crude representations of animals, fish, men, and women
on their arms and legs. A young man had the figure of a jaguar ( ?) on
his right arm and a man on his left. The women's tattooing was done
after marriage, and consisted only of a rectangle on the chin, with a band
running to the ears.
The Apiacd smeared their body with urucii mixed with babassu oil.
Some people painted the lower part of the body with genipa; others
painted only the arms. A common motif was a line from the hair to the
tip of the nose. Women painted their legs and hips with vertical stripes
and rows of dots between the lines.
TRANSPORTATION
Settlements were connected by paths, though in "Nova NavegaQao"
(Anonymous, 1856) it is stated that only water ways were used. Canoes
were made of a large piece of jatoba (Hymenaea sp.) bark held open by
crosspieces and having at each end a fold tied with cipo creepers. Such
craft could carry up to 38 persons. They were propelled with thick
bamboos split in half and about 6 feet (2m.) long. The Indians paddled
standing. The Apiacd were the best pilots for the rapids of the Tapajoz
River.
Loads were carried overland in conical baskets about 60 to 70 cm.
(24 to 28 in.) high.
MANUFACTURES
Basketry. — The Apiacd used strips of creeper to weave baskets, trays,
sieves, and hourglass-shaped supports for vessels, the last similar to those
of the Uaupes River region (p. 776).
653333—47—23
316 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
Ceramics. — The ceramic ware consisted of pots, pans, and dishes.
Some vessels had a biconical shape and were decorated with series of
parallel right angles on the upper part.
Weaving. — The Apiacd wove hammocks, armbands, and flour bags,
but there is no description of the loom.
Weapons. — Apiacd bows had a flat belly, a rounded back, and shoulders
cut to hold the string. Arrow feathering was of the arched tangen-
tial and radial tied types. The point of an arrow in one of Florence's
prints has three pairs of powerful barbs. Three Indians portrayed by
Florence carry spears from 5 feet to 5 feet 4 inches (1.5 to 1.6 m.) long
with bamboo points 8 inches (20 cm.) long and 2 to 3 inches (5 to 7.5 cm.)
wide. A long tuft hangs just below the point. Two such spears, used
apparently for some ceremonial purpose, are covered from the head to
within 16 inches (40 cm.) of the butt, with short feathers arranged in
blue, red, black, and yellow bands.
War clubs were short. The use of the macana, indicated by Martius
(1867, 1:203), is doubtful.
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION
The Apiacd lived in communal huts (malocas), each constituting a
settlement with one or more chiefs. The population of these huts was
not stable, however, for a man might at will join any settlement within
the tribe. According to "Nova Navegagao" (Anonymous, 1856, p. 103),
the chief bore the title of procro, an obviously truncated word. Under
normal conditions, he exercised his office unobtrusively, since perfect
equality reigned among all. But when foreigners arrived and in war time,
he assumed great authority. His importance is evidenced not only by his
distinctive ornaments (feather diadem, shell pendant, belt), but also by
the inaugural ceremony which accompanied his taking of office. The
chief of the nearest settlement made him sit in the hammock of his
deceased predecessor, and presented him with a ceremonial lance and a
feather diadem, amidst songs and dances. The office was transmitted
from father to son, or, if there were no direct heir, to the nearest relative.
Chiefs alone could have as many as three wives.
The Apiacd showed kindness to one another and never struck a person,
even in fun. Homicide was an unpardonable crime. The greatest punish-
ment which an Apiacd could inflict upon an offender was to taunt him
publicly with his faults. The guilty and even his kin felt extremely
humiliated and debased.
According to Florence, crops were planted and harvested in common.
There was cooperation in hunting and in fishing, wherein canoes, traps,
and other devices were used. Only weapons and ornaments were private
property.
Vol. 3] CAYABI, TAPANYUNA, AND APIACA— NIMUBNDAJU 317
The Apiacd were hospitable, though they received unknown visitors
with furious shouting and warhke demonstrations. The chief, with all
his ornaments, advanced toward the visitor and ordered him to lie down.
This done, he dragged him out of the canoe, gave him a hammock in the
hut, and offered him chicha. Then they introduced their wives and
children to their guests. They gave supplies and feather ornaments to
their European visitors, asking for iron tools in return. Although per-
fectly honest among themselves, their eagerness to get iron tools caused
them to steal from the Whites as early as 1819. They would even break
up supply boxes to remove the nails.
LIFE CYCLE
Childbirth. — After childbirth, the mother was confined for only a day.
Children were brought up in an environment of love.
Puberty. — During menstruation women frequently took cold baths in
the house, and they lined their hammocks with leaves of sororoca.
Marriage. — The Apiacd married at the age of 14. The bride was given
publicly to the groom ; chiefs' weddings were celebrated by a feast.
Monogamy prevailed, though secret polygyny is mentioned by Castelnau
and Coudreau. Chiefs were entitled to several wives. Divorce was easy
and was often followed by remarriage. This, however, caused deep resent-
ment in the families concerned. Some unions are said to have been lasting.
In case of divorce, the children were allotted to the father.
The sexual act was surrounded with secrecy, but not when visitors were
given women in exchange for tools.
Death. — A person was buried in his own house under his hammock
amidst cries and fearful shouts. He was placed in a squatting position
in a shallow grave, the head only 8 inches (20 cm.) under the ground
level. Soil was piled about 16 inches (40 cm.) high over the grave. A
widow or widower would lie in his hammock over the grave, his face
painted black and his hair closely cropped, eating only a maize mush until
the exhumation of the bones which, according to the "Nova Navegacao"
(Anonymous, 1856), occurred only after a year had elapsed. The bad
smell emanating from the tomb was endured as a courtesy to the dead.
With tears and praise of the deceased, female relatives unearthed his
remains, carefully handing them to tearful assistants who placed them
in a basket. The basket was then wrapped in a new hammock and hung
from the house rafters in front of the place where the deceased lived.
After the hammock had rotted away, the bones were buried again in the
grave from which they had been removed. From then on, the dead was
forgotten.
318 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
It seems that the Apiacd were at war with all their neighbors. Until
the end of the past century, their worst enemies were the Tapanyuna on
the right side of the Arinos River and later on the upper Tapajoz River.
They fought with them whenever they went to the Rio do Peixe to get
material for making stone axes. On the Juruena River, their enemies
were the Namhicuara. To the north, below the confluence of the Arinos
and Juruena Rivers, their enemies were the CazvaJiib ( Cabahihn) , whom
they had driven to the interior of the jungle and to whom they referred
since 1819 as the inhabitants of the Para-Mutanga (parana-mitan, "Red
River," or Sangue River) , a tributary of the Juruena River. Other hostile
tribes mentioned by Castelnau (1850-59) were the Mufonihiien (Mato-
nawi (?) to the northwest, in the Aripana River Basin) and the Sitihuava
( ?). By 1848, the Apiacd were on the defensive against the Tapanyuna
and the Nambicnara. Early sources recount no hostilities between the
Mundurucu and the Apiacd, but the former told Gongalves Tocantins in
1875 that they had been warring against the Apiacd since before 1789.
Tocantins (1877) also says that the Mundurucu pursued the Apiacd in
the middle of the last century', forcing the latter to move to Salto Augusto.
These data are quite uncertain.
The Apiacd waged war not for material gains but only to avenge past
affronts, the memory of which the old folks kept alive in their tales. The
people would ask the chief for war, and he would take the necessary steps.
Formerly, the Apiacd would march every year with 200 to 300 warriors
against some tribe.
The Apiacd set out on war expeditions after harvest but only if their
shamans predicted a favorable outcome. Upon the chief's request,
neighboring villages always gave their cooperation. Each warrior took
his own supplies, and extra supplies were carried in case of need. The
chief carried his lance, and two aides carried his bow and arrows. During
the campaign, the chief held the title of "sata" (? tata, "fire"), and
everyone obeyed him. He gave the signal for camping and made the
fire (by friction ?), from which others took their firebrands. After bathing
and eating, he gave the signal for setting up the hammocks and retiring.
Trusting in their scouts who had explored the region during the day,
the warriors slept without sentries. Next day, to allow the scouts time
to get a head start and to hunt, the men bathed and resumed the march
when the sun was high. Toward the evening, the column joined the
scouts, who reported what they had seen and gave the chief the product
of their hunt.
The Apiacd preferred to wage war by ambuscade, but if they came
unexpectedly in contact with the enemy they fought bravely.
It is well established that the Apiacd practiced cannibalism, even as
late as 1848. They quartered the bodies of those killed in battle, ir-
Vol. 3] CAYABI, TAPANYUNA, AND APIACA— NIMUENDAJU 319
respective of sex, and roasted them. The prisoners led to the village
were eaten with elaborate ceremony by all the people of the village. The
children were captured and brought up together with the tribe's own
children. At the age of 12 or 14, the young captives were sacrificed
ceremonially within the circle of the gathered tribe. The children's foster
fathers broke their skulls by striking them behind with a club. The bodies
were roasted and eaten during an all-night feast. The Apiaca were
unwilHng to sell the captive children at any price ("Nova Navegagao,"
Anonymous, 1856, p. 100). Castelnau (1850-59) states that a young
woman prisoner might be spared for 4 or 5 years before she was sacrificed.
He also says that only boys having a rectangle tattooed around the mouth
at puberty were permitted to eat human flesh. The boys were urged
to partake of the flesh that it might instill in them a spirit of courage.
MUSIC AND DANCE
The musical instruments mentioned in our sources are drums, rattles,
and bamboo trumpets "emitting unharmonious sounds."
Dancers formed two concentric circles, the inner consisting of men
who held a bamboo trumpet in one hand and rested the other on their
neighbor's shoulder. They turned to the right and to the left alternately.
The women formed another circle on the outside, holding hands and stick-
ing their heads under the left arms of the men and accompanying the
dance by hopping. A similar dance is performed by the Parintintin of
the Madeira River,
RELIGION AND SHAMANISM
According to Castelnau (1850-59) and Guimaraes (1865), the Apiaca
believed in a god who was Creator of the sky and of the earth and ex-
pressed his wrath by thunder and lightning. They worship him inwardly
and pray to him. In the "Nova Navegaqao" (Anonymous, 1856), the
name of the Apiaca god is given as Bahyra. This corresponds to the
Parintintin culture hero, Bahira (Nunes Pereira, 1940), and the Tupi-
namba- Maira.
Shamans foretold the future and treated sick people. In order to
learn about the outcome of a war expedition, the shaman fell into a
deathlike trance, during which he spoke with spirits. Upon regaining
his senses about midnight, he began to sing and prophesy. People had
great respect for him but paid only for his cures. To cure, he blew
on the patient and sucked on the affected parts, then washed him with
decoctions of crushed herbs which were poured through a sieve. He
cured colds by causing the patient to sweat over a fire built around
and under his hammock. Cures were undertaken simultaneously by two
shamans, who agreed upon the procedure. The treatment always lasted
3 days — 2 days for blowing and sucking and 1 for bathing. The shamans
320 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
never returned to see the patient after the treatment, regardless of its
results. As pay, they received the best personal possessions of their client.
For the treatment of injuries by sucking and application of crushed herbs,
the payment was always lower than for the cure of internal ills. It was
with the treatment of wounds that novices were initiated into the medical
side of their profession.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
See Cawahib, Parintintin, and Their Neighbors, bibliography, page 297.
THE TRIBES OF THE UPPER XINGU RIVER
By Claude Levi-Strauss
TRIBAL DIVISIONS AND HISTORY
The Xingu River was known south only as far as lat. 4° 5' 11" S.
through the expedition of Prince Adalbert of Prussia in 1843. When
Karl von den Steinen descended it for the first time in 1884, its upper
course, the region inland, and the numerous tribes inhabiting the area
were entirely unknown. Von den Steinen descended the Batovi River,
a branch of the Xingu River, and discovered the Northern Bacdiri,
Custenau, Waura, and, on the Xingu River, the Suya and Manitsaua.
During a second expedition in 1887, he traveled down the Culiseu River,
also a branch of the Xingu River, and saw the Nahukwa, Mehinacu,
Aueto, Yaulapiti, Trwmai, and Camayura.
Hermann Meyer made an expedition in 1896 to the Culiseu and Ja-
toba Rivers, and another in 1889, mainly to explore the Ronuro River.
In 1900-1901, Max Schmidt traveled to the Culiseu River. Later,
Hintermann (in 1924-25), Dyott (in 1928), Petrullo (in 1931), and
Buell Quain (in 1938) studied the upper Xingii River region.
The upper Xingu tributaries form an elaborate comblike system of
waterways, about 150 miles (240 km.) wide. After running most of
their course parallel to one another, the streams join at about lat. 12° S.
to form the Xingu River. The confluent branches are, from west to
east, the Steinen (Ferro), Ronuro, Jatoba, Batovi (Tamitoala, Culiseu
(Kulisehu), and Culuene Rivers.
Along their upper courses, the rivers are bordered by continuous strips
of gallery forest which hardly screen the savanna of the hinterland. Along
their middle and lower courses, the forest widens, and lagoons and marshes
form dead-water channels which permit communication with the secondary
streams. Several tribes live close to one another near the rivers. The
more important settlements lie between the Culiseu and Culuene Rivers,
in the eastern part of the basin. Few inhabitants dwell along the
western rivers.
The native population of the Xingu area is numerous and extremely
varied. The tribes belong to all the chief Brazilian linguistic families,
but there is no correlation between the linguistic provinces and geo-
321
322 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
graphical divisions. The Hnguistic boundaries are difficult to determine
because they freely overlap, crossing valleys and watersheds.
The location of the tribes of the upper Xingu River may be sketched
as follows (map 1, No. 1 ; see Volume 1, map 7.) :
(1) Cariban tribes. — Only the eastern portion of a formerly important
nucleus of Cariban tribes south of the Amazon River falls within this
area. It extended west to the Tapajoz Basin, where it is now represented
by the Bacdiri of the Novo and Parantinga Rivers (lat. 14° S., long.
56° W.). In the south it reached the neighborhood of Cuiaba. The
Carib of the upper Xingu Basin include: (a) The Bacdiri of the Batovi
River (4 villages in Von den Steinen's time) ; {b) the Bacdiri of the
Culiseu River (3 villages) ; and (c) the Nahukwa {Nahuqua, Anauqua),
on the right bank of the Culiseu River (lat. 13° S., long. 53° W.). Be-
tween the Culiseu and Culuene Rivers, there were numerous villages,
whose inhabitants Von den Steinen called Nahukwa, though they bear dis-
tinct names, among which Guicuru (Cuicutl) and Apalakiri (Calapalo) are
mentioned most frequently (lat. 12° S., long. 53° W.). A careful census
of the villages between the Culiseu and Culuene Rivers was made by
Hermann Meyer, who recorded no less than 15 different groups. In
Von den Steinen's time, the Mariape-Nahukwa were the northern repre-
sentatives of the Cariban family. The Bacdiri language differs in im-
portant features from that of the Nahukwa. The latter includes sev-
eral dialects distinguished by phonetics rather than by semantics or
morphology.
(2) Arawakan tribes. — The Arawakan linguistic family, named Nu-
Aruak by Von den Steinen, occurs mostly in the country between the
Culiseu and Batovi Rivers, even crossing the lower course of the latter
toward the Ronuro River. Arawakan tribes live north to the Bacdiri
of the Batovi River, northwest of the Bacdiri of the Culiseu River, and
east of the Nahukwa. From the southeast to the northwest, they include
the Mehinacu (Minaco), on the left bank of the Culiseu River (lat. 13°
S., long. 54° W.) ; the Yaulapiti (Yawalapiti) , north of the Mehinacu
(lat. 12° S., long. 54° W.) ; the Custenau (Kustenau) , on the right bank
of the Batovi River (lat. 12° S., long. 54° W.) ; and the Waura (Aura;
not to be confused with the Orinoco Delta Warrau), on both banks of
that river (lat. 12° 30' S., long. 54° W.). All the Arawakan dialects
of the upper Xingu River are similar.
(3) Tupian tribes. — In Von den Steinen's time, the Tupian tribes
occupied a small area on the left bank of the Culiseu River, opposite
the Nahukwa and close to the Yaulapiti. They include the Aueto {Autl,
Auiti), lat. 12° 30' S., long. 54° W., the mixed Arauiti (resuhing from
intermarriages between Aueto and Vaulapiti) to the south, and the Cama-
yura (Camayula) to the north (lat. 12° S., long. 54° W.). The Manit-
saua {Mantizula) are also Tupi, but their language includes many ele-
Vol. 3] TRIBES OF UPPER XINGU— LEVI-STRAUSS 323
ments from the Suya (a Ge tribe), on the Xingu River to the north, about
lat. 11° S., long. 54° W.
(4) Trumai. — ^This isolated linguistic family was in Von den Steinen's
time represented by two villages, one on the left bank of the Culiseu
River between the Aueto and the Yaulapiti, and the other on the right
bank of the lower Culuene River north of the Mariape-Nahiikwa (lat.
12° 30' S., long. 54° W.).
(5) Ge. — The Suya (Tsiiva), who inhabit the Xingii River at about
lat. 10° 5' S., belong to the Ge linguistic family, as probably do the un-
known "Cayapo," who are said to live to the east on the headwaters of
the Culuene River. (See vol. 1, p. 478.)
The history of the area is not well known. The Bacdiri say that their first home
was on the headwaters of the Paranatinga and Ronuro Rivers. They moved to the
great falls of the Paranatinga River, and later to the country between the Ronuro
and Paranatinga Rivers. After unsuccessful wars against the Cayabi (Cajabi),
who still occupy the Verde River, they returned to their present dwellings. The
Suya appear to have moved during the first quarter of the 19th century from the
Arinos and Verde Rivers to the upper Xingu River. Similar migrations within a
relatively small area are said to have been made by most of the tribes prior to Von
den Steinen's visit.
Since 1887 many changes have occurred in the geographical distribution of the
different tribes. According to Hermann Meyer's map (Meyer, 1887 b), the southern
Trumai village had disappeared in 1896, but it is found again on Max Schmidt's
map made in 1900-1901 and on Petrullo's map made in 1931, though situated farther
south, between the Mehinacu and the Nahukwa. The northern Trumai village was
also moved south, across the Culuene River. By 1931, the Arawakan tribes had
made important shifts. The Waura had abandoned the Batovi River and settled
halfway between the Yaulapiti and the Mehinacu on the Culiseu River. Thus, the
general trend is toward tribal intermixture and concentration of population on the
river banks. The Nahukwa, however, still hold a continuous territory, clearly dis-
tinct from that of other tribes, along the right bank of the Culuene River.
In 1896, Hermann Meyer obtained information on the hitherto unknown upper
course of the Paranaiuba River, a left tributary of the Xingu River. His informants
named 19 different tribes said to be settled in that area. It appears from small
vocabularies that the Yaruma speak a Cariban dialect and the Arawine a T-upian
dialect (Krause, 1936 b). Nothing is known of the others. Meyer's list of the
Paranaiuba River tribes corresponds, except for a few names, to the lists of tribes
east of the Culuene River obtained by Petrullo from a Bacdiri and an Apalakiri in-
formant. These consisted of 10 and 14 names, respectively. An alleged pygmy
people is called Phot by the Bacairi and Tahulgi by the Apalakiri. Several widely
separated groups are called Cayapo (Kahaho).
On the basis of Meyer's map, the whole upper Xingu area, excluding the Para-
naiuba River, contained 35 villages. This number agrees reasonably well with Von
den Steinen's estimate of 2,500 to 3,000 inhabitants made in the same region 9 years
earlier. For more recent times, we possess only partial data. Fawcett counted
about 150 Bacairi in 1925, and there were approximately 50 persons in the Trmnai
village where Quain stayed in 1938. Although the population is apparently much
less numerous now than 50 years ago, the Xingti Basin — probably because of its
great isolation — did not suffer the same tremendous demographic decline that
affected other parts of Brazil.
324 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
CULTURE
SUBSISTENCE ACTIVITIES
The economic life of the upper Xingii tribes is somewhat more complex
than that of other Brazilian Indians, as it is based upon fishing, hunting,
collecting of wild foods, and agriculture. Activities revolve around differ-
ent products according to the season. Turtle eggs furnish a basic staple
during the dry season. Piqui fruits (Caryocar butyrosum) and bitter
manioc are the main foods during two different parts of the rainy season.
Fishing is practiced throughout the year. To some tribes, it is the main
source of food (Petrullo, 1932 a) ; to other tribes, it is the only recourse
when other products are unavailable (Quain, ms.). Ants, larvae, and
grubs are eaten; crickets are collected to feed pets. Hunts are usually
large expeditions in which all the adult men of the village participate;
they sometimes continue for days. Taboos on game seem to be rare ; it is
not certain whether squirrels, which the Trumai do not kill, and the sucuri
(Eunectes murinus) and a certain bird, which are forbidden among the
Bacdiri (Capistrano de Abreu, 1938), may simply not be killed or whether
they may be killed but not eaten.
Fishing. — Fishing is highly organized and is "one of the few examples
of group cooperation which transcends the immediate family" (Quain,
ms.). Each tribe possesses the privilege of fishing in well-delimited
stretches of the rivers and owns fish dams and weirs. Some dams consist
of fences of posts {Bacdiri), others are made of branches or stones.
Strangely, the widespread technique of drugging fish (p. 13) and the
hook were unknown in 1884 (Steinen, 1886). Fishing techniques include
nets placed across the streams, baskets used mostly in lagoons, and night
fishing with torches. Basketry traps, made of tucum fibers, are either
long and narrow or short and wide. Some are conical and open at both
ends to permit the fish to be removed with the hand. The natives also fish
from canoes, throwing wild fruits as bait and shooting the fish with bows
and arrows when they come to the surface. Petrullo describes spear fish-
ing from the prow of a canoe (pi. 27, bottom), the spear being about 25
feet (7 m.) long and consisting of a wooden shaft, a foreshaft of reed, and
a large conical bone point. Quain did not find spear fishing practiced
among the Camayura, the Nahukwa, or the Trumai; and he considers it
an individual invention. The fish were usually cleaned before being broiled
on a pyramidal babracot.
Farming. — According to Von den Steinen, women planted, weeded
with the digging stick, and harvested the crops, but men cultivated tobacco.
Among the Trumai, only men do the planting (Quain, ms.). A Nahukwa
chief who was seen planting maize (Steinen, 1894) dug holes about 2 or 3
inches (5 or 8 cm.) deep with a stick and put several kernels in each hole.
Manioc sprouts are set obliquely in loosened earth, first dug with hoes,
Vol. 3] TRIBES OF UPPER XINGU— LEVI-STRAUSS 325
and then replaced in the trench (Quain, ms.). Gardens are opened in the
forest by felhng and burning the trees. Orchards of wild fruit trees are
transplanted near the village or are cultivated in their native habitat. Von
den Steinen saw avenues of piqui trees leading to a Bacdiri village. The
Waura had mangabeira (Hancornia speciosa) orchards and the Bacdiri
used to irrigate wild urucu trees. Bacaiuva palm trees (Acrocomia) and
frutas de lobo (Solanum lycocarpum) were also cultivated. The best
gardeners were the Mehinacu (Von den Steinen, 1894).
The species most frequently found in the area are bitter manioc and
maize, the former being predominant; two kinds of yams and two kinds
of beans; cara (Dioscorea), abobora (Cucurbita), mamona (Ricinus) ; a
small species of peanut; pepper; calabashes (Crescentia) and gourds
(Lagenaria) , chiefly among the Nahukwa; sweet potatoes, abundant only
among the Mehinacu; tobacco, flourishing in the gardens of the Stiya and
Aueto; and cotton, the best quality being grown by the Bacdiri and
Mehinacu. Other plants are grown for industrial purposes. For instance,
a sharp lanceolated grass (Scleria), used for shaving the tonsure (p. 327),
and the uba cane {Gynerium sagittatum) , which provides arrow shafts
for the Batovi (Steinen, 1894), are grown. The banana and guava
were wholly unknown in 1887, but in 1938 the Camayura consumed quan-
tities of the former and the Trumai, of the latter. The foreign origin of
most of the agricultural terms of the Trumai suggests that they borrowed
cultivated plants from their neighbors.
Food storage and preparation.— To store ears of maize, most tribes,
especially the Bacdiri, Yaulapiti, and Mehinacu, hang them to the roof of
the hut with their leaves artistically arranged in the shape of birds and
other animals. The Bacdiri keep maize flour in large cylindrical baskets
lined with sewed leaves and covered with bark sheets. Among the
Yaxilapiti; Naravute, a A/'a/«^^wa-speaking group (Petrullo, 1932 a) ; and
Trumai (Quain, ms.), piqui fruits are boiled and placed in cylindrical bark
containers about 4^^ to 6^ feet (1.5 to 2. m.) in length, sealed at both
ends, and placed in a pool of cool water. On ceremonial occasions the
containers are opened and the beverage is equally distributed. It is mixed
with water and drunk. Other preparations of the piqui include boiled sap
(Quain, ms.), rasped and toasted seeds, and a syrup extracted from the
leaves (Steinen, 1894).
Game and fish are broiled in the skin, generally on grids of plaited vines.
The Bacdiri roast several turtle eggs simultaneously on a spindle-shaped
griddle made of vines (Hintermann, 1926). Several kinds of wild nuts
are eaten roasted. Although boiling is a woman's task, broiling and roast-
ing are always done by men (Steinen, 1894). To prepare manioc (pi. 28),
women grate it on thorns imbedded in wooden planks, but the Camayura
use an Anodonta shell. The tipiti is entirely unknown ; instead, basketry
sieves are used to strain ofif the poisonous juice (Steinen, 1894). Flour
326
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS
[B.A.B. Bull. 143
and starch, which are prepared from manioc, are dried on large flat baskets.
They are cooked and eaten in the form of gruel or of flat cakes (beiju) ;
slightly toasted on clay slabs. Manioc and piqui gruel are a basic meal
throughout the area. Quain observed that adult Trumai never drink
water but only gruel. The Trumai season the manioc gruel with "iriwa,"
a shelled, fibrous, unidentified fruit, and prepare a cottonseed-oil paste
(Quain, ms.). The Bacdiri dip food in oil before eating it. According to
PetruUo, salt is unknown, but Von den Steinen mentions salt made from
bamboo salt, and Quain describes the preparation of water-lily salt, each
Trumai making his own supply by burning the plant and sifting the ashes.
Although geophagy is rare. Von den Steinen saw dolls made of edible clay
being licked by Bacdiri children.
VILLAGES AND HOUSES
Villages (fig. 32) are usually established two miles (3 km.) or more
from the river, with a path leading to the stream. The only exceptions
Figure 32. — A Bacdiri village. (After Steinen, 1886.)
were the Suya (in 1884) and the Trumai (in 1887) villages, both built on
a river bank. Villages visited by Von den Steinen had from 2 to 20 huts
and from 30 to 200 inhabitants. Dyott saw a Nahukwa village of 7 houses
arranged in a circle, and Petrullo visited a village where the huts were
scattered in an irregfular manner. Quain observed a Trumai village with
Vol. 3] TRIBES OP UPPER XINGU— LEVI-STRAUSS 327
5 houses and 43 inhabitants and a Camayura village consisting of 1 1 houses,
each haystack-shaped, with two clean, straight avenues leaving the village
at right angles. The avenues of piqui trees of the Bacdiri village have been
mentioned (p. 325).
Three types of huts have been observed, the first two of which are rare.
Von den Steinen (1894) gives a drawing of a Custenau hut with a circular
ground plan and a huge conical thatched roof erected on a low circular
lattice wall. Hintermann (1926, p. 251) reproduces a Bacdiri house
formed by a pointed arch covered with grass and closed at both ends with
two apses of straw, in which doors were placed. All sources agree on
the common type of hut (pis. 29; 30, top). According to Petrullo, the
ground plan is an ellipse, approximately 30 feet ( 10 m.) by 65 feet (20 m.) .
In the center, about 16 feet (5m.) from each end are three main supporting
posts (two, and even one, among the Trumai in Quain's description) set
deep into the ground.
A ridge pole is lashed on top of the supporting posts, which stand 25
feet (8 m.) above the ground. A wall, 5 feet (1.5 m.) high, is made of
posts set 6 inches (15 cm.) apart. To these posts are lashed long thin
poles, their tops bent inward and lashed together. Heavier short poles
are lashed at one end to the ridge pole and at the other to the bent poles,
so as to form a false outer roof. The entire structure is covered with a
light framework thatched with grass, except for an opening between the
false roof and the ridge pole, which is left as a smoke hole. The ends
of the ridge pole project and are thatched decoratively.
A house is shared by several families, each of which occupies a section
where it keeps its own fire. Hammocks are hung between the central
posts and the wall, sometimes in two or three tiers. In the middle of the
hut stands a platform where food and implements are kept. Two low doors
are on opposite sides of the ellipse.
In addition to these communal dwellings, every village has a guest house,
which Von den Steinen and Petrullo described as poorly built and badly
kept. In most of these houses two logs running lengthwise provide seats
for the men of the village. Guest huts are reserved for the entertainment
of visitors and for ceremonial gatherings. Because dance costumes and
musical instruments are kept in them, Von den Steinen called them "flute-
houses."
DRESS AND ADORNMENT
Hairdressing. — All the upper Xingu River Indians are tonsured. The
Suya shave their foreheads but the tribes of the Culiseu River wear a
circular tonsure which may be 3 inches (7 cm.) in diameter. Bacdiri men
sometimes use wooden hair curlers. Women's hair is cut only on the
forehead, but men's hair is cut all around at the level of the ear lobe (see
pis. 27, 30). Piranha-fish teeth are used for cutting, and red-hot embers
328 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [P..A.E. Bull. 143
for singeing, the hair. The hair is frequently groomed with a composite
comb, which hangs from the hammock (Culiseu River) or from the
shoulder (Suya). Plucking all body hair is customary, although Cama-
yura and Nahukwa men sometimes keep their moustache and beard, and
Suya men do not pluck pubic hair.
Mutilation. — All men have their lobes pierced, but only Suya
women wear large bark plugs in the lower lip. The nasal septum is
pierced among both sexes of the Bacdiri of the Paranatinga and Batovi
Rivers and of the first village on the Culiseu River, but only among men
in the second village; whereas the custom is completely lacking in the
third village (Steinen, 1894). Men wear wooden pegs and women stone
spindles in the nasal septum.
Body ornaments. — Smearing the hair and the body with urucii and
oil paste is general. Sometimes dots and straight wavy, and zigzag lines
are painted on the face or body. True tattooing exists only among the
Arazvakan tribes, whose men and women use semicircular and lozenge
patterns traced with soot and taruma (Verbenaceae) juice. All tribes
have scratches on the arms or elsewhere, made for medical treatment.
Among the Trumai a nonceremonial hygienic scarification is frequently
performed by adults.
All men slip their penis up under the belt, except the Trumai, who
formerly tied only the prepuce with a cotton thread and now let it hang
free. Suya women go naked, and Trumai women formerly used a supple
belt of fiber with a perineal band (Steinen, 1894) but have now abandoned
it (Quain, ms.). All other women of the upper Xingu River wear the
"uluri," — a piece of straw folded in the shape of a triangle, to two corners
of which strings are attached to tie around the waist, with the third corner
hanging down and held to the back of the belt by a perineal string passing
between the legs (fig. 33).
Ornaments. — Bacdiri and Nahukwa men use armlets and anklets of
straw or woven cotton, and Bacdiri men put feathers in their ear lobes.
Headdresses are fashioned of skin, feathers, and fur diadems (especially
rich among the Camayura and Suya), feathered circlets, and plaited osiers
in cylindrical or star shapes {Nahukwa) . The Camayura wear hair nets
or caps trimmed with feathers or tufts of human hair. Necklaces are worn
by the more developed tribes. They are made of shell {Bulimus and
Orthalicus melanostomus) and nut beads among the southern tribes
(Bacdiri and Nahukwa), and of stone beads among the northern tribes
(Yaulapiti, Trumai). The cylindrical, circular, spherical, and pear-shaped
(Mehinacu, Aueto) stone beads were copied in clay and rosin in the south.
In 1887, horn, bone, and teeth beads were used particularly by the Yaula-
piti and the Mehinacu. The Trumai and Aueto have necklaces of jaguar
claws. The Yaruma were said to use earrings having a metallic sound
(Steinen, 1894). More recently, Dyott (1930, p. 223) noticed elaborate
Vol. 3] TRIBES OF UPPER XINGU— LEVI-STRAUSS
329
Figure 33. — Bacairi pubic covering. (Redrawn from Steinen, 1894, fig. 18.)
stone ornaments among the Nahukwa, such as a Maltese cross made of
diorite, similar to those worn in the 18th century by the Paressi.
TRANSPORTATION
Fishing and intertribal trade make the rivers important communication
routes (pi. 27), The upper Xingu canoes, which may be 25 feet (8m.)
or more in length, are made of the bark (pi. 32) of the jatoba tree
(Hymenaea sp.). A suitable tree is found, and a light frame on which to
stand is built against the trunk. A long rectangular piece of bark is
stripped off and carefully placed on low trestles above a fire. When the
heat has softened the bark, the edges are bent upward and the prow is
given a pointed shape, while the stern is bent toward the inside. The
Yaulapiti curl the edges toward the inside. Holes and cracks are filled
with wax and clay. One day's work will make a canoe which can be
launched the next morning. When the canoe is completed, several men
carry it to the river on their shoulders, protected by a cushion of fiber
or bark.
Paddles are cut from solid wood and have a long rectangular blade and
shaft, the upper part of which is often carved in the shape of a transverse
330
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS
[B.A.B. Bull. 143
handle. Decorative designs are sometimes carved or painted on the blade
(fig. 34, a).
Small streams are crossed on tree trunks.
MANUFACTURES
Raw materials. — Stone, teeth, bone, shells, and feathers are used for
manufacturing. Stone, however, is rare, only one quarry, worked by the
Trumai, being known to Von den Steinen. On the Xingu River, how-
Sa cm.
Figure 34. — Upper Xingu artifacts, a, Bacdiri canoe paddle; h, Mehinacu flute;
c, spear thrower; d, Trumai stone ax; e, Bacdiri digging stick; /, hafted drill;
g, h, Nahukiva bull roarers in fish form. (Redrawn from Steinen, 1894, figs. 29,
40, 28, 20, 76, 21, 122.)
Vo]. 3] TRIBES OF UPPER XINGU— LEVI-STRAUSS 331
ever, the Siiya had their own stone quarry, and fashioned stone axes. The
lower jaw of the piranha fish is used for sawing; and a front tooth of the
cynodon fish for tattooing, carvdng, and piercing. The teeth of the traira
fish (Erythrinus) and of the aguti (Dasyprocta aguti) serve as scrapers;
those of the capivara {Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) , as graters. Monkey
teeth decorate necklaces and belts. The long bones of monkeys and the
spikes on skate tails are made into arrow points. Femur bones of deer and
jaguars are used as ear borers. Bones also serve to polish wax or rosin
surfaces. Jaguar claws and fish vertebrae are often strung on necklaces.
Shells are widely used for cutting, rasping, planing, and polishing; the
cutting edge is either the external rim or the edge of an irregular hole
pierced in the center. A shell is usually tied to a cotton thread and
carried slung around the neck to be used as a pry for opening nuts.
Feathers are used to ornament the ears, head, and arms, and to feather
arrows.
Spinning. — Fibers of wild pineapple (Bromeliaceae), tucum palm,
burity palm (Mauritia flexuosa), and cotton are prepared by women, who
twist the thread on their thighs, previously smeared with white clay, and
spin it on a drop spindle. The round whorl is made of tortoise shell or
wood and is elaborately carved. Among the Bacalri, the whorl, made of
wood, a potsherd, or raw clay, is not decorated.
Netting and weaving. — Fishing nets, carrying nets, and hammocks
are netted by women, with a wooden needle.
The Bacdiri have twined hammocks of cotton thread, whereas the
.^mwa^aw-speaking tribes make smaller woven hammocks with buriti
fiber and cotton. The Aiicto hammock is woven with a tucum-fiber warp
filled with a dense cotton weft disposed in bands alternately white and dark
blue. In 1887, the use of the hammock was adopted by the Snya, who
formerly slept on platforms covered with leaves. Sieves of woven cotton
are also made for straining manioc. For weaving cotton armlets, women
use a crude loom, made of two low posts fixed in the ground around which
a continuous warp is passed.
Basketry. — Basket making is a man's task. Basketry materials are
palm leaves, bamboo strips, and vines. The most common techniques are
checker, twilled, hexagonal, and open hexagonal weaves. Forms include
large flat baskets {Aticto, Mchinacu), storage baskets {Bacdiri), and
narrow, hollow carrying baskets of open hexagonal mesh (Trumai,
Schmidt, 1905; and Bacdiri, Hintermann, 1926). The natives also make
improvised rucksacks and carrying baskets by weaving and knotting two
or three freshly cut palm leaves. Small mats used for seats (Petrullo,
1932 a) and to wrap up feathers (Steinen, 1894) are made of bamboo
sticks twined with a cotton string and decorated with designs. Square
sieves for straining manioc and square and triangular fire fans are also
made. In most basketry, part of the material is dyed black, giving diversi-
653333—47—24
332
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
C (J -'•^•
Figure 35. — Upper Xingii wooden spindle whorls, a, Mehinacu; h, c, Camayura;
d, Aueto. (Redrawn from Steinen, 1894, figs. 55, 56, 59, 58.)
fied bicolor patterns (Schmidt, 1905). Dance costumes and Bacdiri cylin-
drical basketry headdresses are elaborately woven of straw.
Containers. — The bark containers for piqui and the bark-covered
baskets for flour have already been described. Numerous kinds of con-
tainers, such as spoons, bowls, pots, and boxes, are made of gourds and
calabashes. The inside of the calabash is varnished with buriti soot mixed
with scrapings of rosinous bark ; the outside is often carved, pyrograved,
or painted with geometric designs. Broken calabashes are repaired by
sewing the ends together.
Pottery. — Von den Steinen's statement, so widely commented upon,
that the Araivakan-spadking tribes were the only ceramists in all the upper
Xingu area was probably true as recently as 1938, when Quain noticed
that all the pots owned by the Trumai came from the Waura. Three main
types must be distinguished : ( 1 ) Large manioc-flour containers with flat-
tened bottom and bell-shaped rim (pis. 28; 31, bottom), encountered
among the Mehinacu and the Waura; (2) round cooking pots, already
scarce in 1887; and (3) hemispherical bowls about 4 to 8 inches (10 to
Vol. 3]
TRIBES OF UPPER XINGU— LEVI-STRAUSS
333
20 cm.) in diameter, with a blackened inner surface, an indented rim, and
often a modeled, stylized zoomorphic shape representing various animals
r'
3 V j- in.
Figure 36. — Pottery of the upper Xingii River. (Redrawn from Steinen, 1894,
pis. 23 and 24.)
(fig. 36) . The last type is most frequently found among the Aueto, Cama-
yura, Trumai, and Nahukwa, and is perhaps made by Arawak women who
married into these tribes. Earthenware is made only by women and is
baked in an open fire.
Wooden artifacts. — Carved zoomorphic benches, used throughout the
upper Xingu area and everywhere called by the Tupi name, "apiika(p),"
have a rectangular, slightly shallow seat supported by two side planks
(fig. Z7, a, b), whose lower edges extend forward and backward to give
added support. Many of the seats are carved in the shape of a bird; a
few represent quadrupeds (fig. 37, c, d) and are provided with four feet
instead of the two side planks. Benches have mainly a ceremonial use
and are offered to guests and dignitaries (Steinen, 1886, 1894). The
Naraviite use only bark benches (Petrullo, 1932 a) .
Miscellaneous implements. — Stone axes are generally of diabase,
round or ellipsoidal in cross section, and about 4 to 8 inches ( 10 to 20 cm.)
in length. They are polished on natural rocks. The head is glued into
a wooden handle which is shaped like a square club with a short shaft
3^* SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E, Bull. 143
shift al'/fl,""'!!'' ^1'- ''■ ^^ ''""'' °' ^'""^ P-"'= -' - -ch end of a
sliaft and fastened wth wax and cotton thread. Sand was used in drilhn^
Gravers are made of a capivara tooth tied tangentially to a han^ ''
J.flnijlini
gum fieilrrs '„'■/' T '°™'"'* ""' *°°'' «S"=''. ". *. J^'^'"""™
Vol. 3] TRIBES OF UPPER XINGU— LEVI-STRAUSS 335
Farming implements include digging sticks (fig. 34, e), those used
by the Mehinacu having a carved handle, and hoes made by attaching the
claw of a great armadillo (Priodontes giganteus) to a stick.
Shovels for turning cakes (beiju) during cooking are half-moon-shaped,
with or without an elaborately carved zoomorphic handle, and often have
geometric designs painted on the blade.
Combs are always composite ; those of the Nalmkzva and Mehinacu
have tips carved with zoomorphic figures. Scrapers consist of triangular
pieces of calabash imbedded with teeth.
Fire is produced with the drill and bark timber.
Weapons. — Bows and arrows are the only weapons found everywhere.
Arrow poison and the blowgun are wholly unknown, although Quain saw
the blow gun used as a child's toy among the Trumai.
Bows are about 63^2 feet (2 m.) long; those of greatest length (8^ feet
or 2.6 m.) are found among the Naravute and the shortest among the
Waura. The cross section is generally round, sometimes oval, and occa-
sionally flat (Max Schmidt, 1905; Petrullo, 1932 a). Bows are made
of aratazeiro (Anonaceae) or of pau d'arco (Tecoma). The Tupian-
speaking tribes are the only ones who sometimes make bows of palm wood
and who decorate them by wrapping the center with cotton. The string
is made of twisted tucum fiber. Among the semicivilized Bacdiri of the
Paranatinga River, Von den Steinen noticed that bows and arrows were
smaller than elsewhere.
Arrows, 5 feet (1.5 m.) or more in length, are made of uba cane or
camayuva wood, with a thinner foreshaft. The point may be barbed
with teeth, with the mandibular sting of the great anteater, with the spike
of a skate's tail, or with a tubular monkey bone or a two-pronged bone
fragment tied laterally to the foreshaft. Arrows with a barbed point are
used only for fishing. Those with a point made of a large splinter of
bamboo fastened to the foreshaft in such a way that the point will slip
off the shaft or break oflf and remain in the wound are widely used in war-
fare. The Triimai and Suya employ such a point for hunting the jaguar.
Von den Steinen described whistling arrows for bird hunting, made with a
pierced tucuma nut slipped over the shaft ; but those collected by Petrullo
have the whistling nut in place of a point, and are used only for sport.
Two halves of feathers spirally twisted and sewed to the shaft are
widely called "Xingu feathering." There is often a philodendron wrap-
ping at both ends, plain among the Camayura and intricate among the
Trumai. All tribes use the primary release and direct shooting for short
distances, indirect or elevated for more distant targets.
The fishing spear of the Naravute has already been described.
The spear thrower, or atlatl (fig. 34, f ) was known only to the Cama-
yura, Aueto, and Trumai, but none used it as a true weapon. Although
spear throwers were more numerous than bows in Von den Steinen's time
336 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
and perhaps were formerly employed in warfare, they are used now only
in sportive ceremonies (p. 347). The upper Xingu spear thrower is
about 2^ feet (70 cm.) long and consists of a cylindrical palm-wood shaft,
one end carved in the shape of a flattened handle, which is grooved on
each side and has a finger hole, and the other end having a hook fastened
on it. The spear is of uba cane without feathering or with small, non-
spiraled feathers. The wooden or stone point is set on the shaft. It is
either blunt (spherical, conical, pear-shaped, or cylindrical) or else sharp
(knob-shaped, two-pronged, or flattened). A whistling nut is sometimes
slipped over the shaft.
The Suya have clubs with a flattened oval head and a short shaft;
these are made of siriva palm, a tree of the Cocus family. Trumai clubs
are of the same type but smaller and cruder. Both the Trumai and Cania-
yura use even smaller clubs for ceremonial dances.
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION
Information on social and political organization is extremely scarce.
Von den Steinen stated that there were several chiefs ; Petrullo, that each
house has its headman ; and Quain, that the Trumai chief was assisted by
two vice-chiefs, who rule in his absence, and by helpers or servants.
Chieftaincy was transmitted from father to son, or, if there were no son,
to the sister's son or the daughter's husband (Steinen, 1894). In 1938, the
Trumai chief was the son of the daughter of the chief whom Von den
Steinen had met 50 years .before. All sources agree that the power of
the chiefs is limited. The Trumai chief, for instance, is not the only
medicine man of the group. He does no work and has no garden of his
own. His main function is to assign work to men and women and to
organize collective gangs for fishing, hunting, and tilling the soil, Petrullo
described the exhortation pronounced by the headmen each morning
followed by communal bathing in the river.
A division of the members of the group into "elders" and "youths"
seems to exist among the Trumai. A sib organization is only vaguely
suggested by our sources, except in the case of the ATa/zM^waw-speaking
villages, each of which has its own name and territory.
The Bacdiri are matronymic, and authority inside the family belongs
to the maternal uncle. A distinction between the elder brother and the
younger brother, the name for the latter being also used for cousin, seems
to be made in all the kinship systems of the area (Steinen, 1894). Among
the Trumai, residence is patrilocal, and marriage is forbidden between true
cousins and some types of classificatory cousins and with the sister's
daughter. The latter is permitted among the Camayura, who otherwise
have the same kinship system as the Trumai (Quain, ms.). Among both
groups there is a joking relationship between cross-cousins, and an avoid-
Vol. 3] TRIBES OF UPPER XINGU— LEVI-STRAUSS 337
ance and shame relationship between brothers-in-law. Some undefined
kinship relations imply homosexual relations (Quain, ms.). Nothing is
known of the kinship systems of the other groups, but marriages between
natives belonging to different generations among the tribes on the Parana-
tinga and the Culiseu River (Steinen, 1894) and the fact that Von den
Steinen was called "younger brother" by the Bacdiri and "maternal uncle"
by the Mehinacu are strong indications that kinship systems might not be
identical throughout the area.
LIFE CYCLE
Birth. — Sexual intercourse is forbidden among the Trumai during the
last months of pregnancy and until the child can walk (Quain, ms.).
Abortion is often practiced, either by manipulating the abdomen or by
drinking magic medicines. Women give birth in a sitting position (Quain,
1894) or crouching and grasping a pole (Steinen, 1894), Trumai men
attend each parturition and smoke tobacco (Quain, ms.). The couvade
consists of social and dietary prohibitions accompanied by ceremonial
blowing on the baby's body (Steinen, 1894).
The child is given magical drinks to ensure its being strong (Quain,
ms.). Its father gives it a name different from his own. A prohibition
on the use of personal names seems to have been widespread. Among the
Bacdiri it is more strict for women than for men. Personal names can
be changed several times; an exchange of personal names establishes a
special tie of friendship between adults (Aueto and Mehinacu) (Steinen,
1894).
Puberty. — The initiation ceremony for Trumai boys includes scarifying
the body with a fish-tooth instrument and rubbing the arms with the claw
of the great armadillo. Whenever possible, the boy is given an oppor-
tunity to wrestle with a boa (Quain, ms.). During her first menstrual
period, a girl is isolated ; while tobacco is blown on her, her body is scari-
fied; and she is forbidden to eat (Steinen, 1894). Her ears are pierced
and her hair is cut and turned down over her face. During her subsequent
menstrual periods, a girl is not isolated; but she is forbidden to have
sexual intercourse, to do any cooking, or to eat anything but manioc
(Quain, ms.) . Leaves are used as an absorbent.
Infant betrothal was observed among the Trumai (Quain, ms.) and
Bacdiri (Steinen, 1894). The marriage ceremony of the Trumai is
merely the presentation and acceptance of a hammock and other gifts
(Quain, ms.). A fishing expedition seems to be connected with the mar-
riage feast. Among the Bacdiri there is no ceremony, but the bride's
father receives an ax and arrows from the groom and his help in farming
(Steinen, 1894) . The only form of polygyny practiced among the Trumai
is sororal. Adulterous relations between a husband and his wife's sisters
are not infrequent. Among other tribes on the Culiseu River, a man may
338 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
simultaneously marry both a mother and her daughter (Quain, ms.). The
levirate and some form of fraternal polyandry probably are practiced by
the Trumai. The behavior of Trumai women suggests the fear of rape.
When adultery is committed, the husband beats his wife, who seeks the
protection of her mother. He stands in the center of the village and
accuses her lover. Either spouse may bring about divorce (Quain, ms.).
Death. — Trumai behavior faintly suggests that a stigma attaches to
old age. All the tribes of the upper Xingu area bury their dead in a
recumbent position with the head toward the east, except the Suya, who
practice a crouched burial. Trumai corpses are wrapped in their ham-
mocks and, with their implements and cooking utensils, interred in the
village plaza (Quain, ms. ; Steinen, 1894). The Mehinacu cover the
graves with pebbles and stones; the Aueto (pi. 31, bottom) and the
Yaulapiti surround each one with a low fence, which, among the Cama-
yura, forms a square, with two of the opposing sides concave. The
Camayura break the dead man's implements on the grave and express
their grief by shaving their hair and fasting (Steinen, 1894). Nothing is
known about inheritance rules, except that, among the Trumai, the "ole"
songs are transmitted from the maternal uncle to the sister's son
(Quain, ms.).
SOCIAL RELATIONS
In social life there is a marked segregation of the sexes. Men have
their own meetings. Their custom of smoking in the center of the village —
the "evening group" — has impressed all travelers as a fundamental insti-
tution of upper Xingu society. Other occupations of Trumai men include
trade games, the "ole" dance, and wrestling with visitors, the last an
extremely popular pastime among all groups (Steinen, 1894; Quain, ms.).
Trade games may last hours, while each man successively offers raw
materials, art objects, or implements for sale. Trumai women, in con-
trast to the women of some of the other tribes (pp. 343-344), do not
frequent the center of the village or participate in dances (Quain, ms.).
Trumai custom forbids a public display of the natural functions, which
are performed far from the gardens (Quain, ms.). A Bacdiri never eats
in public, or else turns his back when eating. Singing in a loud voice
is disapproved. Disgust is expressed by spitting quickly (Steinen, 1894).
Most of the formalized etiquette is connected with receiving visitors in
the guest house, presenting them ceremonial seats, and offering them food
and tobacco. Ceremonial wailing was noticed among the Bacdiri (Steinen,
1894), Yaulapiti, and Naravute (PetruUo, 1932 a).
INTERTRIBAL RELATIONS
Although Petrullo emphasizes the homogeneity of material culture,
wide variations in tribal customs undoubtedly once existed. A semblance
Vol. 3] TRIBES OF UPPER XINGU— LEVI-STRAUSS 339
of homogeneity was produced by intertribal trade; for example, ceramics
were, and in some instances are now, furnished to the Bacdiri and Na-
hukwa by the Custenau and Mehinacu, and to the Trmnai and Tupian-
speaking tribes by the Waura. In Von den Steinen's time, the Bacdiri
specialized in the production of urucu and cotton, and in the manufacture
of hammocks, rectangular beads, and other kinds of shell beads. The
Nahukwa were the best producers of calabash containers, tucuma nut
beads, and red shell beads. Stone implements were the monopoly of
the Trumai and Suya; tobacco raising was a specialty of the Suya; and
the production of salt was, and still is, important among the Trumai and
Mehinacu. The /^rawa^aw-speaking tribes exchanged their pots for the
calabashes of the Nahukwa. In 1938, Trumai bows were still made by
the Camayura (Steinen, 1894; Quain, ms.).
Industrial specialization was accompanied by a diflference in living
standards. Von den Steinen was struck by the poverty of the Yaulapiti,
whose food supply was running low and whose manufactured articles
were scarce. Such situations could also result from poor crops or from
an unforeseen enemy attack, as intertribal relations on the upper Xingu
River were not exactly pacific.
Each tribe possesses its own territory with well-defined boundaries,
frequently river banks. Though the rivers themselves are unrestricted,
the fishing dams which are built at short intervals are tribal property
and are respected as such. The distrust between neighbors is shown
in the custom by which visitors build a fire as a warning signal sev-
eral hours or days before reaching a village (Quain, ms.). Tribes
designate one another as "good" or "bad," according to the generosity
they expect or according to the aggressive spirit of their neighbor. When
Von den Steinen visited the Culiseu River, the Trumai had just been
attacked by the Suya, who had also captured a large number of prisoners
from the Manitsaua. The Bacdiri feared the Trumai because of their
alleged custom of tying up and drowning their war prisoners. In 1887,
the Trumai were fleeing from the Suya (Steinen, 1894), whom they still
feared in 1938 (Quain, ms.). These conflicts existed even between
groups speaking the same language, for instance among the Nahukwa.
(Steinen, 1894; Quain, ms. ; Dyott, 1930.)
Although visiting strangers were frequently robbed (Steinen, 1894;
Quain, ms.), intertribal ties were undoubtedly stronger than rivalries.
Quain noticed a general multilingualism. Each village always had visitors.
Commercial travels and trade games, intertribal wrestling matches, and
reciprocal invitations to feasts offered constant inducements for visits
(Steinen, 1886, 1894; Quain, ms.). Extremely significant is Quain's
suggestion that initiation ceremonies were perhaps performed jointly by
the Mehinacu (Minace) and Trumai.
340 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
Intermarriages resulted from these half-warlike, half-friendly relations.
In Von den Steinen's time, marriages occurred between the Mehhiacu
and Nahukwa, the Bacdiri of the Batovi River and the Custenau, and
between the tribes of the Culiseu River and the Nahukzva. Intertribal
marriages could even found new groups, like the Arauiti.
ESTHETIC AND RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Toys and games. — Bacdiri children play shuttlecock with a maize husk
topped with a feather. They spin tops made of a fruit impaled on a
stick with cotton at the lower end to prevent skidding. They also have
small spear throwers, blowguns, bows and arrows, and zoomorphic toys
made of woven and twisted straw (fig. 37, e, f, i, j). Woven straw
dolls have been found among the Mehinacu and dolls of clay and tree
gum (fig. 37, g, h) throughout the area.
Trumai adults often wrestle for entertainment (Quain, ms.). The
solid rubber balls of the Aueto are made by laying latex strips on the
chest and rolling them into a ball, then piercing it with a small hole,
and painting it red (Steinen, 1894).
Plastic art. — Esthetic activities are especially well developed among the
tribes of the upper Xingii River, who tend to cover all their artifacts
with painted designs (Steinen, 1894). Painting and drawing are
stylized, often with purely geometrical patterns, such as checkerboard,
triangles, lozenges, and parallel lines. But even these elements ,bear
naturalistic names, e. g., a checkerboard represents a bee swarm, and re-
current triangles, bats. Quain collected naturalistic drawings among the
Trumai far superior to the childish sketches published by Von den Steinen.
The "mereschu" pattern is encountered throughout the area and was called
after, and said to represent, a small fish of the lagoons (Myletes). It con-
sists of a lozenge with four blackened angles representing the head, tail,
and upper and lower fins. The Aueto seem to have brought the Xingu
style to its highest level of abstraction. A special hut of the Aueto village
was named by Von den Steinen "the painters' house," not only because
of its numerous decorations but because it was inhabited mainly by artists.
House decorations are not rare. A frieze of bark strips (fig. 38)
blackened with soot and painted with white clay extended along the
wall of a Bacdiri hut for 185 feet (56 m.). Its decorative themes included
zigzag lines, dots, circles, lozenges, and triangles, which were said to
represent several kinds of fish, feminine sex symbols, palm leaves, snakes,
and bats. The Aueto apply white clay uniformly to house posts and
then paint designs in black soot over it.
Other decorated objects include paddles and pancake (beiju) shovels
(all tribes), canoes and drums {Bacdiri), and calabashes {Bacdiri, Na-
hiikiva). Tortoise-shell whorls are carved and painted with soot, often
in a rosette pattern. During ceremonies, they are slung around the neck
Vol. 3]
TRIBES OF UPPER XINGU— LEVI-STRAUSS
341
m
Figure 38. — Bacdiri house wall decorations on bark strips. (Redrawn from Steinen,
1894, pi. 20.)
as ornaments (Mehinacu, Aueto, Camayura). Earthenware is painted
with straight, parallel lines, angles, half-circles, and sometimes with re-
productions of the tattoo patterns of the Mehinacu.
Figure 39. — Bacdiri wooden dance pendants. (Redrawn from Steinen, 1894, fig. 48.)
Many wooden ornaments, implements, and pieces of furniture are
carved in zoomorphic shapes (p. 333), Shell and stone beads are fre-
quently retouched to suggest birds or fishes. In a guest house of the
Mehinacu, Von den Steinen saw two small mounds modeled in the shape
of a lizard, each about 3 feet (1 m.) long and 3 inches (8 cm.) wide.
The most remarkable carving of the upper Xingu River is done on trees
in the forest. The Nahukzva and to a lesser extent other tribes draw
large effigies of men, women, and animals on trunks of trees, either by
342
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS
[B.A.E. Bull. 143
carving an outline of the figure or by removing the bark from the whole
silhouette.
Dance costumes and masks. — Costumes of foliage and straw caps
ornamented with shells or feathers are widely used in dances. Straw
garments like coveralls, with separate sleeves and legs and huge crinolines
30 feet (10 m.) in circumference, are worn by the Bacdiri. A two-piece
straw costume gives the Camayura actor the appearance of a mushroom.
Cylindrical blocks of wood richly painted with geometric designs (figs.
39, 40) hang on the back to complete the dance costume (Steinen, 1894).
Figure 40. — Bacdiri masked dancers. (Redrawn from Steinen, 1894, figs. 98 and 90.)
South of the Amazon, masks were most highly developed on the
Upper Xingu River, but are no longer made. They represented animals,
but were shaped like human faces, the archetype being suggested only
by a pattern painted in the middle of the face. The "mereschu" design
was common on all masks. The simplest type of mask might be the
fishing net that a Nahukzva put on his head (Steinen, 1894). Several
elaborate types can be distinguished: (1) Zoomorphic headdresses made
of carved wood, woven straw, painted calabashes, furs, or the dry head
or skin of some animal. A remarkable headdress of the Bacdiri of the
Batovi River consisted of seven carved and painted birds mounted on
sticks to which cotton is glued (Steinen, 1894). (2) Straw masks woven
in the shape of an oval sieve and either without human features or with
stylized eyes and nose modeled in wax and attached to the frame (Ba-
kdiri, Nahukwa, Aueto). (3) Flat, oval straw masks (fig. 42, a, b) with
a frame of netting or of woven cotton and features made of plastic wax,
cotton tufts, beans, or shells, lavishly painted {Bacdiri, Aueto, Camayura,
Trumai). (4) Rectangular wooden masks, often with only the forehead
and nose carved and an animal pattern painted in place of the mouth
(figs. 41 ; 42, c-f). This type was found among the Bacdiri, Nahukwa,
Aueto, and Camayura, and was the only one found among the Mehinacu.
Vol. 3]
TRIBES OF UPPER XINGU— LEVI-STRAUSS
343
'ISSJi
r4 Ui^m
*1 "11(41 IMliM
J fln^lim
r^^-y
b
Figure 41. ^Mehinacu and Bacairi masks, a, b, Mehinacu; c, Bacdiri. (Redrawn
from Steinen, 1894, figs. 103, 102, 94.)
The lower part of the mask usually bears a beardlike fringe of straw.
J 'he best carved and painted masks seem to have been made by the
Mehinacu and Aueto. The Trurnai, who now use no masks, had only
woven cotton ones, probably borrowed from the Camayum (Quain, ms.).
Most tribes had "fish" masks and "bird" masks, each probably asso-
ciated with a dance cycle. Every village possessed its own collection of
masks; today these are not worshiped and are willingly sold.
Dances, songs, and music. — Bacairi women are excluded from the
guest house during "great feasts" but participate in lesser feasts and in
exclusively feminine festivals (Steinen, 1894) . Except among the Trurnai,
women are/allowed to dance (Quain, ms.). The Camayura have seven
different dances. According to Dyott's description (1930, pp. 201-202)
of a Nahukwa dance, men form two lines lengthwise of the house ; the
women, two rows at right angles to them. The men hold their hands out-
stretched and stamp their feet ; each woman rests an arm on the shoulder
of her companion and swings the right foot back and forth. In another
Nahukwa dance, witnessed by Von den Steinen, three men stamped and
whirled rhythmically while an old woman jumped back and forth. In a
Yaulapiti dance, the men circled counter-clockwise, stamping the right
foot. Chanting, the women danced outside the circle, arm in arm and palm
344
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [R.A.E. Bull. 143
'^^'""W^j
mm^gm ;
/> >'\)/^jy y n
d e f
Figure 42. — Upper Xingii masks, a, Trumai; b, Camayura; c, Aueto; d, Camayura;
e, Mehinacu; f, Bacdiri. (Redrawn from Steinen, 1894, figs. 118, 112, 314, 113,
104, 44.)
to palm with fingers interlocked, taking three steps forward, pausing, and
stepping back (Petrullo, 1932 a, p. 142). During another feast, clowns
with big flageolets marched grotesquely from hut to hut, entering each
while the women pretended to be frightened (Petrullo, 1932 a, p. 139).
Von den Steinen described a Bacdiri ceremony that is possibly related to
the last. Men gathered in the guest house and each, wearing a dance
costume, rushed out in turn to enter some hut, from which he returned
with an offering of food. Quain (ms.) says that although Trumai singing
was not polyphonic, "its modulations seemed like classical harmony."
Musical instruments. — All Indians dance with rattling anklets or
necklaces of shells and seeds. Gourd rattles are common among the
Bacdiri, Nahukzva, and Camayura, and tortoise-shell rattles among the
Nahukwa (Steinen, 1894). The Aueto have rattles made of an egg
Vol. 3] TRIBES OF UPPER XINGU— LEVI-STRAUSS 345
fastened to a stick. There are also bottle-shaped rattles which are beaten
(stamping tube?) against the ground.
Two drums made of hollow tree trunks resting on the ground were
found in a Bacdiri and a Camayura village (Steinen, 1894).
Wind instruments are common. Whistles consist of palm nuts pierced
with one or two holes. Several types of small and large panpipes are used.
Suya "panpipes," which have three tubes and are 5 feet (1.5 m.) long,
have air ducts and reeds, and may really be three clarinets bound together.
A widely used instrument is the flageolet, about 2^ to 3 feet (75 to 90
cm.) long, with four holes and an air duct through the wax of the mouth-
piece, which is sometimes beveled. The flageolet is usually made of a
solid piece of bamboo, but sometimes two longitudinal halves are glued
together with wax and wrapped with cotton or bark. The Bacdiri play
two flageolets in unison (Steinen, 1886), and the Nahukwa and Yaulapiti
play three that are attached together and painted red and black (Dyott,
1930; Petrullo, 1932 a). Von den Steinen mentioned a toneless rhythm
trumpet made of bamboo without holes and with a calabash resonator at
the bottom.
Drinks and narcotics. — Von den Steinen emphasized the lack of
fermented drinks as proof of the primitive state of the area. When he
was on the upper Xingu River, all men smoked, except those of a single
Bacdiri village on the Batovi River. Tobacco leaves were dried between
two planks and twisted in a spindle-shaped roll. Tobacco rolls similar to
those described by ancient travelers are still in use. Cigarettes are rolled
in special leaves and are tied with a bit of grass. Although tobacco has a
secular use, smoking is frequently associated with magic and ceremonial.
RELIGION AND SHAMANISM
Shamanism. — Shamanism is said to be uncommon among the Bacdiri
and Auet'd ; more frequent among the Nahukwa and Mehinacu; and fully
developed among the Trumai. To become a shaman, one must submit to
long and complicated trials, including fasting, remaining awake, and self-
punishment, such as knocking one's head against the hut posts and scar-
ifying the body (Steinen, 1894). When curing a disease, the Trumai
chief produced "blubbering noises . . . healing and blowing upon the
patient with tobacco" (Quain, ms.). The belief in the life-giving property
of breath is often emphasized by Von den Steinen, who also describes the
shooting of "magic arrows," consisting of small sticks or cotton threads
which were believed to cause illness and which the shaman sucked out of
the body.
The practice of witchcraft ("okei" in Trumai, Quain, ms.) both for
benevolent and evil purposes, is widespread. A knowledge of poisons is
important to the shaman. Some drugs are said to swell the patient's body
346 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
fatally (Quain, ms.) ; others consist of lizards mixed with the blood and
hair of an enemy (Steinen, 1894). According to the use they make of
witchcraft, sorcerers are designated "good" or "evil."
An important culture trait is the magic use of tobacco for "seeing-
smoking" (Quain, ms.). This narcotic state enables one to receive
messages, warnings, and visions. According to Von den Steinen, narcosis
is a privilege of the shaman, who might, in a narcotic state, assume the
appearance of an animal and travel far away. Quain witnessed an exoteric
use of the process by the Trumai, among whom "seeing-smoking" might
be practiced by anyone, though only at night. The natives interpret
reading as a sort of "seeing-smoking." They also believe in premonitory
dreams, which the Bacdiri explain as the alleged power of the soul to
leave the body temporarily during sleep.
Religious beliefs. — Nothing is known of more elaborate religious be-
liefs, except that the Trumai are afraid of the rain, which "might kill
people" (Quain, ms.). They also believe that after death one travels the
Milky Way, meets many jaguars in the sky, and at last enters the Village
of the Beyond, where one may fish with poison (Quain, ms.). This state-
ment is in contradiction to Von den Steinen's opinion that fishing with
poison was unknown on the upper Xingu River (p. 324). The
Bacdiri distinguish between man's two souls, "ghost" and "cover." When
the "ghost" leaves the body it undergoes consecutive transformations, be-
coming first a wandering soul ("kXadopa"), often in the shape of an
armadillo, and later being liberated, when it climbs to the sky on a cotton
ladder and joins its ancestors in its final state called "yamiira" (Abreu,
1938).
Supernatural beliefs are probably associated with the custom, followed
by most tribes, of raising a harpy eagle (Harpia harpy ja) in a conical
cage of poles erected in the middle of the village (photograph in Dyott,
1930, p. 220). The ,bird is carefully fed but is not worshiped. PetruUo
suggests that it receives its share of all game in exchange for its feathers,
which are periodically plucked and divided among the men.
Ceremonials. — The Camayura have special ceremonies for warfare,
fishing, hunting, and initiation (Steinen, 1894). Among the Trumai, the
manioc ("ole") ceremony is the most important (Quain, ms.). Several
peeled poles, each rubbed with white clay, painted in black and red
designs, and decorated with cotton tufts glued to the top, are set up in the
plaza so as to form a shrine. Offering of fish cakes (beijii), and other
kinds of food are placed before the altar, which is sprinkled at intervals
with manioc soup. The ceremonial is reserved for men and includes
wrestling matches, songs, and dances, the last similar to those performed
at a shaman's cures and on other more profane occasions (Quain, ms.).
Another feast is given after piqui fruit drops, which is the time for
piercing boys' ears. It is suggested, though not positively established, that
Plate 27. — Yaulapiti Indians in "woodskins," or bark canoes, (Courtesy
University Museum, Philadelphia.)
'^^Ih''*^
J>-C>M
Plate 28. — Yaulapiti women preparing manioc in pottery vessels.
University Museum, Philadelphia.)
(Courtesy
Plate 29.— Upper Xingu house frames. Top: Roof of a Naravute house.
Bottom: Yniilapiti frame. (Courtesy University Museum, Philadelphia.)
Plate 30. — Naravute and Yaulapiti Indians. Top: Narainde communal house.
Bottom.: Yaulapiti polygamous family. (Courtesy University Museum,
Philadelphia.)
Plate 31.— Upper Xingu Indians. Top: Bacairi hunter with carrying t)a,skpt.
Bottom: Cooiving pots and Auetu grave. (After Steinen, 1894.)
Plate 32. — Aueto carrying bark canoe. (Aftor Stoiiicn, IS')4.)
Plate 33.— Upper Xingu Indians. Top: Suya. Bottom: Yaulapiti. (Courtesy
University Museum, Philadelphia.)
Vol. 3] TRIBES OF UPPER XINGU— LEVI-STRAUSS 347
different tribes are invited to participate in this initiation ceremony.
The Spear Thrower Feast takes place at the beginning of the rainy
season. The Naravute told PetruUo that ceremonial weapons are
divided between two teams which try to strike each other with blunt-
pointed spears. The spectacle of a similar feast among the Camayura
was observed by Von den Steinen. Quain mentions a "Kuth" ceremony,
with wooden symbols which women are forbidden to see. These symbols
may be bull roarers, of which Von den Steinen describes several types.
They are swordlike with black and red designs among the Mehinacu, and
carved in the shape of a fish among the Nahukwa, who have no sexual
prohibitions regarding them. The Bacdiri call their bull roarers "thunder"
or "thunderstorm."
MYTHS AND LEGENDS
The Bacairi tell of their migration to the earth, because of the high
mortality in their first homeland, the sky (Steinen, 1894), and of the
subsequent destruction of the universe by flood and fire and its re-
creation (Abreu, 1938). The creation myths of the Trumai put several
characters on the stage, the Crow, Sun, Moon, "Grandfather," and Jaguar
("Fetde"), father of the Sun (Quain, ms.). An important body of
Bacdiri myths and tales were recorded by Von den Steinen. Three groups
may be distinguished.
(1) The cycle of Keri and Kame. — Keri and Kame, which designate
two culture heroes, are the Arawakan terms for Sun and Moon, borrowed
by the Cariban speaking Bacdiri, who have reversed their meaning. Kame,
the less intelligent and more foolish of the pair, got killed and had to be
revived by Keri. These culture heroes are not identified with the eponymic
celestial bodies ; the latter are conceived as balls of feathers, which once had
been united but which the heroes separated.
The numerous legends belonging to this cycle tell of an unsuccessful
attempt by a mythical stranger to make new human beings ; of the birth
of Keri and Kame from two human bones swallowed by a woman married
to a jaguar ; of the murder of the pregnant woman by her own mother ;
of her post-mortem birth of the boys, done by a Jaguar who was her
uncle ; and of the revenge by the two heroes. From their "masters," they
received the natural elements, laws and customs, and fundamental items
of Bacdiri culture, e.g., the hammock from the lizard, cotton from a kind
of marten (Galictis), tobacco from the electric eel, and manioc from the
deer. After having saved their tribe on a final occasion, the two heroes
disappeared.
The Trumai also had tales about the Sun and Moon, in which the Moon
played the foolish part and had to be saved by its companion (Quain, ms.).
(2) Animal tales. — ^The cycle of Keri and Kame is the basis for sev-
eral animal legends. Others, such as the Trumai Tale of the Crow
653333—47—25
348 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
(Quain, ms.) and the Bacdiri Tale of the Jaguar and Anteater (Steinen
1894), are pure animal tales, rather humorous in character.
(3) Historical legends. — Many details in the cycle of Keri and Kame
and in other legends are interpretations of the early history of the upper
Xingu River. The Trumai believe their ancestors to have been aquatic
animals (Steinen, 1894; Quain, ms.). They explain the cultural diversity
of the tribes of the upper Xingu River as having resulted from a choice
of things which the Sun once oflFered people. The Triimai took the bees-
wax, the Cainayura the bow, the Waura pots, but the White man preferred
the ax and hence he built an extensive civilization (Quain, ms.).
LORE AND LEARNING
According to the Bacdiri, the sky was once in close contact with the
earth. The Sun and Moon, each a ball of feathers, are hidden under a
pot when they are not visible and are carried through the sky by animals,
either slow or fast, depending upon the hour and season. Sometimes the
Moon is hidden by the body of an animal at work, and then an eclipse
occurs. Several constellations are identified, chiefly the Pleiades, Orion,
the Southern Cross, and Gemini. They are said to represent implements,
plants, foods, and other objects. The Milky Way is compared to a drum
which contains animals (Steinen, 1894). The Trumai believe that the
sky is immortal and that it changes its skin like a snake. They also think
that the visible sun is altogether different from, and is the "pet" of, the
real sun, which is called by a special name (Quain, ms.).
All tribes draw geographical maps of the area on the sand. Rivers are
suggested by zigzags cut by transverse lines for the rapids ; circles repre-
sent huts, and circles arranged in a ring are villages. As signs to fisher-
men, drawings of the special kind of fish which is abundant at a certain
spot are left on the sand bank of the rivers (Steinen, 1886, 1894).
The Bacdiri have distinct words for the numbers one to three. Three
is not used frequently, and a combination of the words for one and two is
often substituted for it. The counting of the Trumai is not perfectly clear,
but they, as well as the Waura and Camayura, seem to have a distinct
word for four. Five is expressed by a special word by the Trumai and
Aueto, while the other tribes use the same word as for "hand." Counting
above five is done with the help of hands and feet, and numbers above
five are expressed by combinations of the basic terms.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abreu, 1895 (rep. 1938); Dyott, 1929, 1930; Ehrenreich, 1897 a; Fawcett, 1925;
Hintermann, 1925, 1926; Krause, 1936 a, b, c; 0000; Levi-Strauss, 1943 b; Lima
Figueiredo, 1939; Meyer, 1897 a, b, c, d, 1900, 1904; Nordenskiold 1930 b; Petrullo,
1932 a, b; Quain, ms. (n. d.) ; Ranke, 1906; Schmidt, 1902-04, 1905, 1924, 1928;
Steinen, 1886, 1888, 1892, 1894.
Part 2. The Tribes of Mato Grosso and Eastern Bolivia
THE PARESSI
By Alfred Metraux
TRIBAL DIVISIONS
The Paressi of Central Brazil together with the Mojo and Chane repre-
sent the southernmost branch of the Arazvakan linguistic family.^ They
occupied in the Mato Grosso an area delimited in the east by the Arinos
and the Upper Paraguay Rivers, in the west by the Upper Guapore and
Juruena Rivers, and in the south by lat. 40°30'.
They were divided into three main groups that were often hostile but
that had a homogeneous culture and few dialectical differences : ( 1 ) The
Cashiniti (Kachiniti), scattered along the Soumidoro River, a tributary
of the Arinos River, and near the headwaters of the Sepotuba and
Sucuriu-na Rivers (lat. 15° S., long. 58° W.) ; (2) the Uainmre
(Waimare) , who lived along the upper Rio Verde and Sacre River; (3)
the Cozarini {Kozdrini) , who occupied the region of the watershed of the
Juba, Cabacai, Jauru, Guapore, Rio Verde, Papagaio, Burity, and Juruena
Rivers (lat! 15° S., long. 59° W.).^
The Cosarini seem to be a mixed tribe formed by a nucleus of Paressi
invaders who absorbed and assimilated Indians from other tribes, mainly
Nambicuara (Guayguakure) . As recently as 1910 when Max Schmidt
(1914) visited them, the Cosarini still fought the Nambicuara and kid-
napped the men for slaves and the women for wives. The other Paressi
looked down on the Cosarini as an inferior branch of their nation and
called them Cabishi, a term also applied to the Nambicuara of the Serra
do Norte and to numerous Indians of the Guapore basin. Max Schmidt
called them Paressi-Cabishi, a name which has been adopted in the
anthropological literature.
After 1908, the Paressi were collected by the "Commissao de Linhas
telegraphicas" in the following settlements : Utiariti, Barao de Cam-
* Paressi is closer to Mehinakii than to Mojo.
*The Iranxe (Iranche), who have been classified as a Paressi subtribe, belong according to Max
Schmidt (1942) to a diflFercnt linguistic group,
349
350 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
panema, Ponte de Pedra, and Aldeia Ouemada. In 1928, most of the
remaining Cashiniti and Uatmare lived in Utiariti and Sao Jose. The
surviving Cozarini were settled near Villa de Mato Grosso and at
Tapiruapan.
Population. — Pires de Campos (1862) stresses the large population of
the Paressi and Uaimare in 1718. By 1848, their number had been con-
siderably reduced through slave raids. The Cashiniti were then estimated
at 250, the Uaimare at 400, and the Cozarini (Cabishi) at 500. In 1908,
according to Rondon's census, there were 340 Paressi living in 12 villages
of which the largest had 57 inhabitants and the smallest 16. In 1937,
there remained about 150 Paressi.
HISTORY
The Paressi, under the name of Pareti, are mentioned in connection
with the first Spanish expeditions to Chiquitos and Mojos. At the begin-
ning of the I7th century, some conquistadors reached their territory and
even saw the Serra dos Parecis and the vSerra do Norte. (See Metraux,
1942, p. 160.)
The first account of their culture was written in 1723 by the slaver
Antonio Pires de Campos (1862), who in 1718 had discovered this tribe
on the highlands beyond the watershed of the Paraguay River. The
Mdhibarez, undoubtedly identical with the modern Uaimare {Mahim-
hare), had, according to Pires de Campos, the same culture and the same
language as the Paressi. Pires de Campos mentions also the wild and
cannibalistic Cavihi {Cabishi), but it cannot be ascertained whether the
latter were actually the modern Paressi-Cabishi (Cozarini) .
During the entire 18th century, the Paressi region was crossed by
slavers and by adventurers in search of gold or diamond mines. In the
19th century, the Paressi also were molested by rubber gatherers. Their
territory was finally opened in 1908 by General Mariano Candido da
Silva Rondon, who was then the chief of the Commission that built a
telegraphic line across the Brazilian wilderness. Thanks to Rondon's
endeavours, the Indians were well treated and were even given the means
to adjust themselves to modern civilization. So rapid was their assimila-
tion, that within a few years the Commission could use some Paressi as
employees, even as telegraphers. Schools were created in several villages
and many Paressi received White education. By 1928, the Paressi were
fully acculturated. It is difficult to account for the sharp decline in popu-
lation which took place after 1910; Max Schmidt (1943, p. 10), however,
states that many Cozarini fell victims to an influenza epidemic.
SOURCES
Von den Steinen's chapter about the Paressi in his "Unter den Natur-
volkem Central Brasiliens" ( 1894) is especially valuable for the creation
Vol. 3] THE PARE SSI— METRAUX 351
myths it contains, but his information is fragmentary, for the author never
visited these Indians in their home country. Good data about various
aspects of Paressi culture appear in Rondon's (1912) reports and in the
book "Rondonia" written by the Brazilian anthropologist Roquette- Pinto
(1917, 1938). Max Schmidt (1914, 1943) has written two important
monographs about this tribe: the first one deals exclusively with the
Paressi-Cabishi (Cozdrini) ; the more recent one includes a detailed his-
tory of the Paressi, a summary of their culture, an extensive dictionary of
their language with grammatical notes, and mythological texts in Paressi.
CULTURE
SUBSISTENCE
Farming. — The 18th-century Paressi, who probably lived somewhat
north of their present territory, had large fields of maize, beans, sweet
potatoes, and pineapples. The siliceous plateaus more recently occupied
by the Paressi are less fertile. Only the thin gallery forests along the
rivers are well suited for cultivation, hence the dispersion of the fields and
the frequent shifting of villages. The Paressi cultivate bitter and sweet
manioc, maize (a red and a yellow variety), beans, sweet potatoes, cara,
tobacco, and cotton. They supplement their diet with wild food plants,
such as cashews, jaboticaba, taruma, tucum, wild pineapples, and many
other species.
Hunting. — Game is scarce and elusive in the open savannas of the
territory of the Paressi; these Indians, nonetheless, are good hunters.
They stalk game with the bow and arrow using portable leaf screens to
hide themselves. They also shoot from watchposts or organize communal
drives in which they set fire to the bush. They decoy the game by imitat-
ing its call or catch it with traps. They have well-trained hunting dogs.
According to Pires de Campos (1862), the ancient Paressi caught deer,
rheas, and other animals in pitfalls which they dug within large enclosures
built between two streams. Max Schmidt (1914) reports that hunters
destroy the game indiscriminately, but Rondon (1912) states that they
spare the female rheas during the breeding season.
Fishing. — Shooting with bow and arrows in flooded areas, drugging
with timbo, or angling with European hooks are the main fishing methods
of the Paressi. However, their deep and clear rivers constitute a handicap
which makes fishing less important here than in the other tropical areas.
Domestication. — The Paressi are among the few Indians of America
who practice a primitive form of apiculture. They put swarms of jati bees
{Trigona jati) in a gourd with two openings, one for the bees and the
other, sealed with wax, for removing the combs.
Modern Paressi, besides keeping many wild animals as pets, raise dogs,
chickens, pigs, and ducks. In 1910, the Cosdrini had only dogs which
were ill treated and ill fed.
352
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS tB.A.E. BulL 143
f^CiT.'.fr
Figure 43. — Paressi Indians. Top: Decorated posts and bar for testing strength.
Bottom: Paressi house. (Redrawn from M. Schmidt, 1914, figs. 27, 40.)
Vol. 3] THE PARESSI— METRAUX 353
Food preparation. — Meat is roasted on a four-legged babracot;
manioc is grated on wooden graters, strained through sieves, and roasted
in clay pans. Maize or manioc is pounded in large, cylindrical wooden
mortars with wooden pestles. Gourds of all kinds and sizes serve as
bottles, bowls, and cups. Small mats are used as dishes and fire fans.
HOUSES AND VILLAGES
According to Pires de Campos (1862), the ancient Paressi villages
comprised from 10 to 30 round and oven-shaped huts, from 30 to 40 feet
(10 to 13 m.) in diameter.
At the beginning of this century, Paressi villages consisted only of one
or two communal houses accommodating an average of six families. These
huts were dome-shaped with an oval ground plan and a thatched roof
which reached the ground. The frame was made of bent rafters attached
to a central ridge pole. The lower part of the wall was lined up with
large pieces of bark. These huts averaged 25 feet (7.6 m.) in length,
18 feet (5.4 m.) in width, and 12 feet (3.6 m.) in height. Each family
occupied a space bounded by the rafters.
Each village had a ceremonial hut, which may be described as a gable
roof resting on the ground and closed on all sides but for a single door
shut with a leaf screen.
Hammocks, which were made of cotton, but sometimes of tucuma fibers,
were suspended from the rafters and from extra posts, which were often
decorated with painted motifs (Cosdrini). Such posts were held to be
animated by spirits that protected the families from thieves.
DRESS AND ADORNMENT
Men and women dress today like the Mestizos. Formerly, men went
naked, but tucked their penis under a few cotton strings threaded with
beads and tied around the waist. Women wore short, cylindrical, cotton
skirts, which scarcely covered their lower abdomen (pi. 35, bottom, left).
Pires de Campos (1862) mentions penis covers (?) and women's skirts
covered with feathers. Both sexes wore wide garters and anklets, the men
of cotton, the women's often of rubber. Men use also woven bracelets,
reinforced with wooden sticks and feather quills. Both sexes took pride
in owning a great many beads, which they displayed in the form of brace-
lets or of heavy necklaces suspended crosswise over the chest.
The only headdresses consisted either of a simple feather circlet mounted
on a low frame of bamboo strips or of tufts of feathers attached to the
nape. Feathers were passed through the perforated septum of the nose
and sticks through the earlobes. In former days, both sexes were tattooed,
an operation performed by women. The Paressi paint themselves with
genipa and uinicu.
354 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143
According to tradition, Paressi men wore a tonsure in ancient days;
today they cut their hair around the head. Combs consisted of splinters
inserted between parallel pieces of bamboo.
TRANSPORTATION
Many Paressi groups lack canoes. They cross rivers buoyed by a
bundle of burity stems or on tree-trunk bridges.
The ancient Paressi seem to have built broad paths or even roads to
connect their villages.
MANUFACTURES
Basketry. — Some circular sieves and concave trays are made with a
plain checker weave of bamboo strands. More complicated diagonal pat-
terns are obtained by using a twilled weave. The finished basket is
smeared with black pigment which, adhering to the rough sides of the
strands, causes the design to stand out sharply. The large cylindrical
carrying baskets represent a third technique : the warp and weft meet at
right angles and are held in position by extra diagonal strands (pi. 35,
top, left).
Spinning and weaving. — Cotton is spun with drop spindles fitted
with a clay whorl or a fruit. Ropes of tucum fibers are twisted on the
thigh.
The loom is of the vertical, or "Arazvak," type. Loincloths, baby slings,
and bags are made of the entire cylindrical piece of the finished cloth as
it is removed from the loom. For other objects, such as arm bands and
belts, the warp is cut before the fabric is completed, so that the ends are
always fringed.
Featherwork. — Ancient Paressi excelled in making feather fabric,
probably in the same techniques as Mojo feather mosaics.
Pottery. — Unlike most Arazvakan tribes, the Paressi have a very crude
pottery, though they might have had a better ceramic in the past. Clay is
tempered with the ashes of the katipe bark and a ferruginous powder,
common in the region.
Rubber. — Rubber balls are made by coating a concave piece of wood
with the latex of the niangabeira {Hancornia speciosa). The edges of
the membrane are glued together by pressing them with the fingers. Air
is blown into the ball through a small hole which is patched with a thin
membrane. Several additional coatings of latex give strength to the ball.
The rubber bands which women wore around their legs were made on a
a cylindrical piece of wood.
Weapons. — In 1718, Pires de Campos saw among the Paressi bows and
arrows, flat swords of hardwood, and short spears. Bows and arrows fell
into disuse soon after guns were introduced. The bows of the Cosarini
have a semicircular cross section and shoulders are cut at both ends for
Plate 35. — Paressi life. (Courtesy American Museum of Natural History.)
Vol. 3] THE PARESSI— METRAUX 355
the three-ply cotton string. There are three kinds of arrows : those tipped
with a long sharp rod, bird arrows made of a simple bamboo stem with
the root forming the knobbed head, and whistling arrows. The feathering
is of the cemented type. It is lacking on fishing arrows.
Paressi are acquainted with curare, which they extract from shavings
of the bark of a creeper {Strychnos toxijera). Other ingredients added to
the poison have magical rather than practical usefulness. Curare is used
on ordinary hunting arrows.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
The political unit of the Paressi is the independent village, which is
under the direction of a chief and of a shaman. Often one man fills both
roles. Among the Cosdrini, chieftainship is transmitted to the eldest son,
who enjoys special privileges even when he is only the heir apparent. It
is remembered that in the past some Paressi chiefs ruled over minor chiefs
in other villages. The functions of the chiefs are not fully described in
our sources, but we know that they lead all the ceremonies and that they
receive visitors.
Among the Cosdrini, heads of families control a class of dependents
that includes many adopted captive boys. These servants open clearings,
carry wood to the village, build houses, and give their masters all their earn-
ings (M. Schmidt, 1914, p. 188).
The inhabitants of different villages visit one another frequently and
maintain active commercial relations. The whole territory of these Indians
is crisscrossed by paths leading from one settlement to another.
LIFE CYCLE
Birth. — It is customary for a woman during childbirth to kneel on the
ground and to lean against another woman, generally her mother. Until
the infant's navel cord drops oflF, both parents remain at home. Moreover,
during his seclusion, the father may eat only manioc wafers.^ When the
child is about 3 years old, it receives the name of one of its grandparents
(Steinen, 1894,p.436).
Marriage. — Monogamy prevails now, but formerly sororal polygyny
appears to have been common. When native traditions were still unim-
paired, small children were often bethrothed to each other by their parents.
Sometimes an adult man reared a girl from childhood and married her
when she reached puberty.